No one has captured the attention of NBA fans as much early in the season as Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
As ESPN’s Shams Charania relayed on Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks point guards lead the NBA’s first All-Star fan vote:
Dončić leads Nikola Jokić, Stephen Curry, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama in the top five in the Western Conference, while Antetokounmpo leads Tyrese Maxey, Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham and Donovan Mitchell in the top five in the Eastern Conference.
This season’s All-Star Game is scheduled for February 15 at the Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers.
It will also feature a new format that will have more of an Olympic dimension than the traditional match between the best players in the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference.
The NBA announcement In November, this season’s All-Star Game would feature two teams of United States players and one team of international players competing in a round-robin tournament of four 12-minute matches.
After each team plays each other, the two teams with the best record will face off in the championship game. The tiebreaker in the round robin format will be point differential.
Despite the format changes, five players from each conference will be honored as starters and chosen by fans (50 percent of the vote), players (25 percent) and media (25 percent). The reserves will be selected by the coaches.
Each team will have at least eight players and Commissioner Adam Silver will select additional All-Stars as necessary to fulfill roster requirements.
A look at the current voting standings highlights just how daunting the task U.S. teams could face in the All-Star Game is. Dončić, Antetokounmpo, Jokić, Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama are all in the top five in their respective conference voting and would make international teams.
This includes the voting leaders of Dončić and Antetokounmpo.
Perhaps American teams will be able to rely on their overall depth, but many of the league’s brightest stars are international players.
And they will team up for the All-Star Game.
