NBA All-Star leaders maintain their lead in the final days of voting.
As anticipated, Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James continued to lead their respective conferences heading into next month’s All-Star Game upon the release of the third and final round of fan results on Thursday afternoon. This trend has persisted since the beginning of All-Star polling earlier this month.
Similar to the previous week, Antetokounmpo and James led the field by a significant margin. With over 4 million votes, Antetokounmpo received the most votes overall and was the only candidate to do so, whereas James secured the Western nomination with 3.9 million votes.
For the third round of results released by the NBA on Thursday, Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo emerged as the leading vote-getter across the league, while LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers leads fan voting in the Western Conference.
The outcome of fan voting on Saturday will constitute 50% of the criteria for identifying All-Star starters. Media outlets and NBA players will each contribute 25%.
In Eastern Conference frontcourt voting, the Sixers’ Joel Embiid and the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum are ranked second and third, respectively.
Tyrese Haliburton from the Pacers and Trae Young of the Hawks join the starting lineup as the leading vote-getters based on the results of this round of voting.
With two days remaining in the voting process, Bucks guard Damian Lillard (1,730,036) is in second place, trailing Young (1,815,898) for the final backcourt spot in the Eastern Conference. The voting process will end on Saturday, and TNT will unveil the starters on January 25.
James would be joined in the frontcourt by the Nuggets’ Nikola Joki and the Suns’ Kevin Durant in the Western Conference. Stephen Curry of the Warriors and Luka Donić of the Mavericks would begin in the backcourt.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City (2,331,113) is the closest player within the Western Conference to surpassing Curry (2,616,154) for the second-best backcourt spot, as voted by fans.
East versus West All-Star teams are resuming in the NBA for the first time in seven years. Since 2018, the tournament has permitted captains to choose teams from a pool of voted-in starters and coach-selected reserves.
Each conference’s leading vote-getters were the conference captains. James has served as the format’s captain every year. Curry or Antetokounmpo served as captains in opposition to James.
On Thursday, the league released the results of the third round of All-Star fan voting. Among frontcourt players in the Eastern Conference, Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics ranks third with almost four million votes.
Jimmy Butler is trailing by approximately 2.5 million votes as he vies for the third and final starting frontcourt position in the East.
The true inquiry is whether Tatum can surpass Joel Embiid, center of the Philadelphia 76ers, for the second spot among the frontcourt voters.
In the voting among frontcourt players, Celtics wing Jaylen Brown and center Kristaps Porzingis are ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.
At the All-Star Game, Boston will not start any guards; however, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday came in seventh or ninth, respectively, in the voting for that position.
Tatum and Brown are deserving of their spots in the All-Star Game. Tatum has earned his spot for the All-Star Game for four consecutive years, while Brown was selected in 2021 and 2023. Even Porzingis has a compelling argument.
He has performed admirably during his rookie campaign with the C’s. In addition to setting career highs in several statistics, White has also contributed admirably defensively.