LeBron James leads Western Conference in first All-Star vote returns

The first fan vote returns for the NBA All-Star game are in and, to the surprise of no one, LeBron James is leading all vote-getters in the Western Conference with over 2.2 million votes. Stephen Curry is right behind the Lakers star with 2.1 million votes.

What is a little surprising is that James isn’t the leading vote-getter in both conferences. Right now, that honor belongs to Kevin Durant, who has 2.3 million votes. Giannis Antetokounmpo is a distant second at 1.7 million votes. Antetokounmpo has been the leading vote-getter in the Eastern Conference for the last two seasons.

It’s also noteworthy that Anthony Davis is struggling to get votes. Not only does he have the fourth-most votes among frontcourt in the Western Conference, but he trails two players — Curry and Luka Doncic — in the backcourt. Granted, these are just the first returns, but at his current pace, Davis likely won’t be a starter in the All-Star game because fans account for 50% of the vote, with media and player voting accounting for the remaining 50%.

I suppose that makes sense because there are a handful of frontcourt players that have had better seasons than him to date, including Jokic, Leonard and Paul George (who should really be listed as a guard, but I digress), but we’re also talking about someone that brought Los Angeles its first championship in 10 years just over four months ago. The least we can do as fans is make sure he’s among the leading vote-getters in the Western Conference every year.

Fans have until Feb. 16 to vote for their favorite players. You can vote by going to vote.nba.com, or by using #NBAAllStar next to your favorite players’ names on Twitter. Starters will be announced on TNT on Feb. 18.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow this author on Twitter at @RadRivas.