By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
VTB United League announced the 66 nominees for the 2018 All-Star Game, which will be played on February 17th in Saint-Petersburg. The fans picked out the 66 players, before leading Russian and foreign journalists cut them down to the twenty players that will be featured in the Russian Stars and World Stars teams. No more than two players from a single club will be able to be part of one All-Star team.
League general director Ilona Korstin said: “The first stage–the fan vote–is complete. We received more than 200,000 votes on Facebook and Vkontakte, almost three times more than last season! It’s wonderful to see that interest in the All-Star Game is growing. Russian fans weren’t the only ones to actively support their favorite players; for example, there were a lot of votes from Kazakhstan and Belarus. Alexey Shved and Sergey Karasev took the top two spots on the Russian Stars team as expected. Nizhny Novgorod’s Petr Gubanov, who’s having an excellent season, came in third. On the World Stars team, Astana’s Justin Carter, one of the League’s top scorers, was the surprise top vote-getter. CSKA’s De Colo was second and UNICS’s Quino Colom finished third”.
Like last year, twenty media outlets, two highly-regarded TV commentators, Vladimir Gomelsky and Roman Skvortsov, will participate in the second stage of voting, which will create the 10-player rosters for the Russian Stars and the World Stars, Following the second stage, on February 5th the head coaches selected by the League will name the starting lineups.
Nominees to play in the All-Star Game:
% – the percentage of votes cast on social media for the most popular Russian and international players on each team.
| Avtodor | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Artem Zabelin | Center | 60.1 |
| 2 | Nikita Mikhailovsky | Forward | 34.4 |
| 3 | Alexander Petenev | Forward | 6.6 |
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Perrin Buford | Forward | 44.1 |
| 2 | Trae Golden | Guard | 29.4 |
| 3 | Tre’ McLean | Forward | 28.4 |
| Astana | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Anthony Clemmons | Guard | 41.2 |
| 2 | J.J. O’Brien | Forward | 24.6 |
| 3 | Alexander Zhigulin | Forward | 24.6 |
| VEF | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Andrejs Grazulis | Forward | 40.0 |
| 2 | Kristaps Janicenoks | Guard | 18.7 |
| 3 | Steve Zack | Center | 17.8 |
| Enisey | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Denis Zakharov | Guard | 50.1 |
| 2 | Artem Komissarov | Forward | 30.5 |
| 3 | Igor Kanygin | Forward | 10.6 |
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | DeAngelo Harrison | Guard | 46.3 |
| 2 | Martins Meiers | Center | 27.9 |
| 3 | John Roberson | Guard | 25.9 |
| Zielona Gora | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Markel Starks | Guard | 30.2 |
| 2 | MIchal Sokolowski | Forward | 24.6 |
| 3 | Darko Planinic | Center | 18.3 |
| Zenit | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Sergey Karasev | Forward | 54.8 |
| 2 | Vladislav Trushkin | Forward | 33.2 |
| 3 | Evgeny Voronov | Guard | 20.9 |
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Codi Miller-McIntyre | Guard | 51.6 |
| 2 | Jalen Reynolds | Center | 46.7 |
| 3 | Philip Scrubb | Guard | 13.5 |
| Kalev | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Branko Mirkovic | Guard | 52.1 |
| 2 | Maxim Salash | Forward | 17.9 |
| 3 | Reggie Lynch | Forward | 13.3 |
| Lokomotiv-Kuban | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Dmitry Kulagin | Guard | 51.0 |
| 2 | Vitaly Fridzon | Guard | 45.6 |
| 3 | Dmitry Khvostov | Guard | 32.7 |
| № | Player | Position | % |
| – | Isaiah Whitehead* | Guard | 35.1 |
| 1 | Dorell Wright | Forward | 27.7 |
| 2 | Trevor Lacey | Guard | 23.0 |
| 3 | Mateusz Ponitka | Forward | 20.1 |
| Nizhny Novgorod | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Ivan Strebkov | Guard | 50.3 |
| 2 | Evgeny Baburin | Guard | 35.2 |
| 3 | Dmitry Uzinsky | Forward | 15.8 |
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Kendrick Perry | Guard | 63.6 |
| 2 | Christopher Czerapowicz | Forward | 22.7 |
| 3 | Vladimir Dragicevic | Forward | 18.7 |
| PARMA | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Alexander Platunov | Guard | 35.5 |
| 2 | Alexander Vinnik | Center | 28.3 |
| 3 | Konstantin Bulanov | Forward | 25.4 |
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Kodi Justice | Guard | 39.7 |
| 2 | Janis Blums | Guard | 32.3 |
| 3 | Rashard Kelly | Forward | 26.7 |
| UNICS | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Anton Ponkrashov | Guard | 33.7 |
| 2 | Maxim Sheleketo | Forward | 21.3 |
| 3 | Artem Klimenko | Center | 19.9 |
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Jamar Smith | Guard | 54.1 |
| 2 | Maurice Ndour | Forward | 35.1 |
| 3 | Errick McCollum | Guard | 20.8 |
| Khimki | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Alexey Shved | Guard | 73.8 |
| 2 | Sergey Monia | Forward | 27.6 |
| 3 | Viacheslav Zaitcev | Guard | 19.5 |
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Anthony Gill | Forward | 65.2 |
| 2 | Jordan Mickey | Center | 38.6 |
| 3 | Stefan Markovic | Guard | 17.8 |
| Tsmoki-Minsk | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Vitali Liutych | Forward | 39.8 |
| 2 | Stefan Moody | Guard | 35.2 |
| 3 | Aliaksandr Kudrautsau | Guard | 15.7 |
| CSKA | |||
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Andrey Vorontsevich | Forward | 35.7 |
| 2 | Mikhail Kulagin | Guard | 30.6 |
| 3 | Joel Bolomboy | Center | 30.0 |
| № | Player | Position | % |
| 1 | Nando De Colo | Guard | 54.3 |
| 2 | Sergio Rodriguez | Guard | 44.6 |
| 3 | Cory Higgins | Guard | 33.1 |
* – Isaiah Whitehead parted ways with Lokomotiv-Kuban.