NBA All-Star voting to begin Christmas Day, with a twist
The NBA announced the schedule for All-Star voting and changes to the system on Monday.
All-Star voting will begin for fans at 11 a.m. EST on Christmas Day and conclude at 11:59 p.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, spanning the NBA’s marquee matchups on both holidays. The 10 starters for the 2019 All-Star Game in Charlotte will be revealed on TNT on Jan. 24, three days after the voting closes.
In coordination with the scheduling announcement, the NBA announced a partnership with Google. Fans can now vote by searching “NBA Vote,” “NBA All-Star Vote,” or a player’s name on the search engine. You can also vote using a Google Assistant-enabled device by saying, “Google, talk to NBA All-Star.” Fans can fill out one 10-man ballot per day from Dec. 25 to Jan. 21, with all votes cast on five specific days (Jan. 3-4, 10-11 and 21) counting twice. The #NBAVote hashtag is no longer applicable.
Voting will also be available on the NBA app and NBA.com. Ballots will feature spots for three frontcourt players and two guards from each conference, with all active players eligible to be selected.
For the third straight season, fans will account for 50 percent of the All-Star voting, with media and players splitting the other half. The five starters from each conference will be announced on Jan. 24. A week later, on Jan. 31, TNT will announce the All-Star reserves, selected by the NBA’s head coaches.
The All-Star Game format will follow the same format as last season, with the leading vote-getters from each conference drafting teams — first from the list of starters, then the reserves. As previously reported, the NBA plans to televise this year’s draft at some point between the announcement of All-Star reserves and the game in Charlotte on Feb. 17. Details of the broadcast have yet to be announced.
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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
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