On Thursday, the NBA revealed the first fan returns of All-Star voting. The voting is separated by both conferences and position with each conference including three frontcourt players and two guards. LeBron James is the player with the most votes with a total of 1,083,363 votes. James leads the Western Conference and All-Star voting overall.
Another player with a large number of votes is Giannis Antetokounmpo. Antetokounmpo leads the East with 991,561 votes. Kyrie Irving is in second with 910,329 votes.
Antetokounmpo and James are the leaders, but this could change, although James has a large lead in the West.
Steph Curry has 793,111 votes and Luka Doncic has 679,839 votes. Doncic is second in frontcourt votes. He has more votes than Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant and Paul George.
LeBron/Steph and Giannis/Kyrie lead the first returns of #NBAAllStar Voting 2019 presented by @Google!
Vote on https://t.co/R6fBO5LSAS, the NBA App or by searching for your favorite player or team on Google.
Vote now! https://t.co/gcW4K59HC0 pic.twitter.com/JIZFyIC2Pu— #NBAAllStar (@NBAAllStar) January 3, 2019
Last year, the NBA created a new All-Star format in which the players totaling the most votes (in their respective conference) became team captains. Then, the captains select their teammates from other players with a high number of fan votes There is a draft that will take place later this month on either January 30 or January 31 depending on the captains’ availability. The team captains will select their players then.
Curry and James were the All-Star captains in last year’s game. Curry’s roster included players such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, DeMar DeRozan and Joel Embiid, who all played in the Eastern Conference. With the introduction of team captains, it allows the conferences to be mixed and different lineups to be on the court year after year. James’ roster included Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Now Antetokounmpo and James could be All-Star captains and select the players they want.
The new format made last year’s game exciting. Team LeBron beat Team Steph 148-145. An All-Star game with Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James as captains could be exciting. This is the first return, but there is still time to vote. If voting stays consistent though, this could become a reality.
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