The NBA revealed its All-Star starters on TNT Thursday night.
Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum and Kevin Durant will start for the Eastern Conference on Feb. 19 in Salt Lake City, Utah, while Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic and Zion Williamson will represent the Western Conference. Antetokounmpo and James will serve as captains, who will pick teams before the game in a new wrinkle to All-Star weekend.
The All-Star reserves will be announced on Feb. 2, and those represent the Chicago Bulls' best chance to have All-Star representation. NBA coaches vote in reserves, and DeMar DeRozan long has gained traction in this capacity. He's aiming for his second straight All-Star selection since coming to the Bulls. Seven reserves will be named from each conference---two guards, three frontcourt players and two additional players from any position.
It will be a tougher go for Zach LaVine, who is gunning for his third straight All-Star appearance.
The starters are voted in by a combination of fan voting, which makes up 50 percent of the vote, a media panel, which makes up 25 percent, and player voting, also at 25 percent. DeRozan finished sixth among Eastern Conference backcourt voting, while LaVine finished 11th.
Nikola Vucevic finished 21st among Eastern Conference frontcourt voting. Vucevic received 14 votes from fellow players, ranking 13th in that category. But he finished 24th in fan voting and didn't receive a media vote.
As for DeRozan, he finished fourth in player voting behind Irving, Mitchell and Jaylen Brown with 54 votes. He finished sixth in fan voting and didn't receive a vote from the media panel.
NBA
LaVine drew 17 player votes to finish 11th in that category. He also didn't receive a vote from the media panel and was 11th in fan voting.