The Joel Embiid All-Star campaign is going strong.
Embiid remains fourth among all Eastern Conference frontcourt players with 457,300 All-Star votes, about 16,000 shy of Kevin Love for third.
One of those votes came from Sam Hinkie. Another came from the best player in baseball.
The only frontcourt players ahead of Embiid as of Thursday afternoon were LeBron James (1.1 million), Giannis Antetokounmpo (963,110) and Love (473,328).
This year, it's not just fan votes dictating the All-Star Game starters.
After all votes are tallied, players will be ranked in each conference by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups — fan votes, player votes and media votes. Each player’s score will be calculated by averaging his weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes and the media votes.
The five players (two guards and three frontcourt players) with the best score in each conference will be named NBA All-Star Game starters. Fan voting will serve as the tiebreaker for players in a position group with the same score.
NBA
So these returns are just a voting base and don't dictate the final outcomes if voting stopped today.
But Embiid's chances do seem to be increasing by the day, along with his production, social media hilarity/popularity and the Sixers' win total.
The All-Star Game is Feb. 19 in New Orleans. Voting ends on Jan. 16, while starters will be named Jan. 19 and reserves Jan. 26.
Here's a look at the current top 10 for Eastern Conference forwards and centers:
1. LeBron James (CLE) — 1,066,147
2. Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL) — 963,110
3. Kevin Love (CLE) — 473,328
4. Joel Embiid (PHI) — 457,300
5. Jimmy Butler (CHI) — 400,448
6. Carmelo Anthony (NY) — 327,716
7. Kristaps Porzingis (NY) — 324,106
8. Paul George (IND) — 249,484
9. Jabari Parker (MIL) — 120,022
10. Tristan Thompson (CLE) — 114,759
CSNPhilly.com's Jessica Camerato contributed to this post.