Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault will lead one of the four teams in next month’s NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco.
Daigneault earned his first All-Star head coach nod after the Thunder clinched the best record in the Western Conference through games of Feb. 2, improving to 35-7 with Sunday’s 127-101 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
Daigneault is the first Oklahoma City head coach to earn the honor since Scott Brooks in the 2013-14 season.
Daigneault’s selection also assures that a Thunder assistant coach will be the head coach for one of the other four NBA All-Star teams. The head coach and an assistant from the Eastern Conference squad with the best record through Feb. 2 will coach the other two teams.
The NBA adopted a new one-night All-Star Game tournament this season with three teams comprised of eight All-Stars drafted to teams by former NBA players Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal of TNT’s “Inside the NBA.”
The winner of the Rising Stars challenge competition between first- and second-year players will be the fourth team in the All-Star Game tournament.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.