Luka, Giannis lead early NBA All-Star fan voting with surprise appearances from Tacko Fall, Alex Caruso
The first round of NBA All-Star fan voting is in.
The usual suspects dominate the top of the results, while each conference has a fan-favorite candidate that doesn’t quite meet the traditional definition of All-Star.
Luka, Giannis lead the way
Luka Doncic leads all players with 1,073,957 votes, edging out LeBron James and his 1,020,851 votes for top Western Conference honors. One of the two appears headed to captain honors.
Reigning league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo leads the East with 1,073,358 votes and is the clear front-runner to be the captain out of the conference.
Luka and Giannis have the early lead in All-Star voting ... pic.twitter.com/dPUxgZ7aQO
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 2, 2020
Reminder: How the new All-Star format works
Twelve players from each conference will be named All-Stars with captains choosing from among the player pool to build their own teams. Starters are chosen by a combination of fan, player and media voting, with coaches choosing the reserves. Fan voting counts for 50 percent of the overall vote.
The initial round of voting comes with a few surprises, most notably Boston Celtics rookie center Tacko Fall, who finished sixth in Eastern Conference frontcourt voting in the initial tally.
Tacko time
Fall has played in three games this season, tallying 13 points and seven rebounds in 11 minutes. While it’s certainly a solid per-minute production rate, Fall is cashing in on his fan-favorite status as an affable 7-6 player whose name is Tacko.
That he made his name on the national scene by almost leading an upset of Duke in last year’s NCAA tournament with UCF doesn’t hurt his cause.
Fall leads Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo — who’s in the midst of a breakout campaign that could earn him an All-Star reserve role — by more than 6,000 votes.
Bald Mamba an All-Star?
In the West, Los Angeles Lakers backup guard Alex Caruso cracked the top 10 vote-getters among guards, coming in eighth behind Donovan Mitchell and ahead of Devin Booker.
Caruso is a fine role player off the bench averaging 5.2 points, two rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. He earns this nod courtesy of his cult status as a balding white dude who can jump out of the building.
Name recognition also comes into play for Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who would be named a starter as of today next to Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young based on fan voting. Irving is certainly an All-Star caliber talent, but has played in just 11 games this season because of a shoulder injury.
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