New York (AFP) – Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo lead in fan voting for the 2026 NBA All-Star tournament in returns released by the league on Tuesday. Doncic, a 26-year-old Slovenian star, led the overall vote and the Western Conference with 2,229,811 votes while Greek big man Antetokounmpo was second overall, pacing the Eastern Conference with 2,092,284 votes.
The NBA All-Star event is set for February 15 at the home arena of the Los Angeles Clippers — the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. A new NBA All-Star Game format will feature a World team of global talent and two teams of US players in a round-robin tournament of three 12-minute games and a 12-minute championship matchup. NBA All-Star voting will conclude on January 14 with the team lineups revealed on January 19.
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Fans voting represents 50% of the balloting used to determine five players from each conference to be honored as starters, with a media panel and current NBA players each having 25% of the final totals. NBA All-Stars this year are being selected without regard to position. Each team will have at least eight players with NBA commissioner Adam Silver selecting players to fill out rosters as needed if voting does not deliver 16 US and eight global players, with the internationals able to include US players with ties to other nations.
Denver’s Nikola Jokic, a Serbian center and three-time NBA Most Valuable Player, ranked third in overall voting with 1,998,560. He was followed in the West by Golden State guard Stephen Curry (1,844,903), Canadian guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City (1,554,468), French center Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio (1,321,985), Minnesota guard Anthony Edwards (1,246,423), Israeli forward Deni Avdija (1,224,109), and 41-year-old Lakers legend LeBron James (1,059,855).
New York guard Jalen Brunson was second in the East at 1,916,497 votes, with the most support of any US player. He was followed in the East by Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey (1,908,978), Detroit’s Cade Cunningham (1,752,801), Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell (1,530,237), and Boston’s Jaylen Brown (1,514,259). Other top vote-getters among World team possibilities include New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns, born to a Dominican mother, on 898,038 and Turkish center Alperen Sengun of Houston on 871,952.
© 2024 AFP
