Page 20 - ARUBA TODAY

A20 SPORTS
Friday 24 January 2020

Continued from Page 17 tetokounmpo's total. done by a panel of 100
James, as the leading over- Fan voting, the NBA said, media members.
all vote-getter, will have was up 7% from last year. For the most part, the fans
the top pick when he and Having the 21-year-old got who they wanted. The
Antetokounmpo pick their Young and the 20-year-old three frontcourt selections
teams; Antetokounmpo Doncic starting gives the from the East and West
will pick first in the second NBA two starters those ages mirrored the fan voting, as
round, when the reserves or younger for only the sec- did the West guards. The
are chosen. ond time. The other was in only exception was among
James is a starter for the 1998, when a 19-year-old East guards: Young was the
16th time, an NBA record. Bryant and a 21-year-old fans' top pick, while Brook-
Being a 16-time All-Star Kevin Garnett got starter lyn's Kyrie Irving was second
also puts him third on the nods. among fans and Walker
all-time appearance list, "It's an indescribable feel- was third.
behind 19-time selection ing," Young said in a state- Walker, however, was the
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and ment released by the top East guard choice
18-time selection Kobe Bry- Hawks. "After watching among media and NBA
ant. and admiring all these guys players. Irving was sixth
James received 6,275,459 in the league growing up, I in both of those tallies,
fan votes, edging Doncic am truly humbled to be in enough to drop his total
for the West captain's spot this position." score below Walker.
by 163,724 votes. James The reserves will be an- Young bucked some trends
has been a captain all nounced Jan. 31, with NBA as far as getting his All-Star
three years of this format head coaches doing the starting spot.
being in place by the NBA; voting for those. James He entered Thursday as Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo is fouled by Boston
Team LeBron beat Team and Antetokounmpo will the third-leading scorer Celtics' Daniel Theis during the first half of an NBA basketball
Giannis last year, and Team pick their teams on Feb. 6, in the NBA at 29.2 points game Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020, in Milwaukee.
LeBron beat Team Stephen first splitting up the eight re- per game, behind only Associated Press
Curry in 2018. maining starters and then Harden's 36.6 and Ante-
Antetokounmpo received choosing from the pool of tokounmpo's 30.0. But the get an All-Star nod. cause that was his final
5,902,286 votes, easily the 14 reserves. Hawks are only 11-34 en- The last time it happened season in the NBA.
most in the race to be the The starters were chosen tering Thursday, and it is was 2016, with good rea- NBA players cast votes for
captain from the East. Em- through a formula that unusual for a player on a son. The Lakers were 11-44 292 of their colleagues as
biid got the second-most gave 50% of the weight to team at the bottom of the and Bryant was a starter potential starters. Media
votes in the East, at 3.1 mil- fan votes, 25% to player league or with a winning (and the leading voteget- members voted for a total
lion and barely half of An- votes and 25% to voting percentage under .250 to ter) anyway, largely be- of 26 different players.q