LeBron James has carried the dual mantle of best player and most popular player on the planet for years now.
Is Giannis Antetokounmpo next in line to take those crowns away from him?
Best player, maybe eventually. But when it came to fan votes for the All-Star Game, the Greek Freak came within a couple million votes of LeBron (who had the most votes overall).
Those two were your highest vote-getters from their conferences, and those are your two All-Star Game captains for the Feb. 17 exhibition in Charlotte.
Just a reminder, the format, as it was last season, has the two captains — LeBron and Antetokounmpo — picking their teams playground style in a couple of weeks. First, they will choose from the pool of starters (listed below) then seven reserves from each conference (to be selected by the coaches and announced next week).
The two men will pick their teams live on TNT special NBA All-Star Draft Show Feb. 7 (a week before the game).
Here are your All-Star starters, chosen by a combination of fan votes (50 percent of the total), media votes (25 percent) and player votes (25 percent).
WEST
Guard: Stephen Curry (Golden State)
Guard: James Harden (Houston)
Frontcourt: LeBron James (L.A. Lakers)
Frontcourt: Kevin Durant (Golden State)
Frontcourt: Paul George (Oklahoma City)
EAST
Guard: Kyrie Irving (Boston)
Guard: Kemba Walker (Charlotte)
Frontcourt: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee)
Frontcourt: Kawhi Leonard (Toronto)
Frontcourt: Joel Embiid (Philadelphia)
Some notes on the voting and selections:
• Anthony Davis tied Paul George for that final frontcourt spot in the West (the fans voted PG13 in, the media and players had AD ahead of him), but Goerge wins the tiebreaker, which is the fan vote.
• This will be LeBron’s 15th All-Star Game start, tying Kobe Bryant for the most ever.
• Derrick Rose came in third in the West guard race (tied with Russell Westbrook), voted in by the fans (second overall) but not the media (6th) or players (4th).
• Rookie sensation Luka Doncic was voted in by the fans for the West frontcourt but finished fifth overall when the media and player votes were tallied.
• Dwyane Wade was voted in by the fans as an Eastern Conference guards starter, but he fell to third after the media and players both had his sixth (Walker jumped him for the other starting spot).
• Boston’s Jayson Tatum finished fourth and Philly’s Jimmy Butler fifth in the East frontcourt race.
• Kemba Walker will be starting in front of his hometown fans in Charlotte.
Now the coaches will choose their reserves. If you want to see who we think that should be, the NBC Sports NBA staff made its call on who we want to see already.