By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In a historic moment for European basketball, the Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the two All-Star Game captains alongside LeBron James.
Giannis was first in the players’ voting with a total of 269 votes and got 99 votes out of a possible 100 of the media vote. Ηe is the second most-voted player by fans in the NBA with a total of 4.375.747 votes.
The Western All-Star Game starters include also Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Paul George, and James Harden, but not Slovenian Luka Doncic, the second most-voted player by the fans in the West behind James with 4.242.980 votes. Only two media members voted for Doncic and only 43 players.
George won a tiebreaker over Anthony Davis to get the final frontcourt spot. George received more votes from the fans than Davis.
The Eastern All-Star Game starters are Giannis, Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker, Kawhi Leonard, and Joel Embiid.
The captains will draft the eight remaining players from the starter pool in the First Round and then all 14 players from the reserve pool in the Second Round, making selections without regard to a player’s conference affiliation or position.
The team rosters for the 68th NBA All-Star Game will be revealed on TNT in a special NBA All-Star Draft Show on Thursday, Feb. 7.
Starters for the 2019 NBA All-Star Game were selected by fans, current NBA players and a media panel. Fans accounted for 50 percent of the vote to determine the starters, while players and media accounted for 25 percent each.
After all votes were tallied, players were ranked in each conference by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups. Each player’s score was calculated by averaging his weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes, and the media votes. The two guards and three frontcourt players with the best score in each conference were named NBA All-Star Game starters.