Five takeaways from the early NBA All-Star voting returns

1. LaMelo Ball is more popular than you might realize

Ball’s Charlotte Hornets are just 7-25 and in 14th place in the Eastern Conference. Nonetheless, the 23-year-old point guard is leading all Eastern Conference guards with over 947K votes. That’s more than Steph Curry or Luka Doncic.

Ball averages 30.1 points per game, which would be fourth in the NBA if he’d played enough games to qualify. He’s dishing 7.4 assists and collecting 5.3 rebounds per game, but his popularity is likely due to his personality and highlights. 

Sure, Donovan Mitchell and Jalen Brunson are on much better teams, but can they dribble around an entire team like Ball?

2. Stephen Curry might not start the All-Star Game at home

The Golden State Warriors are hosting the All-Star Game in San Francisco, however the hometown star is only third in the voting for guards, well behind leader Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and roughly 60K votes behind Luka Doncic. With Doncic out indefinitely with a calf strain, Curry could make up ground, but it’s no guarantee he’ll be starting.

The new All-Star Game format almost guarantees Curry will start the game. That’s because the 24 All-Stars will be drafted into three teams by Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. Curry might not be one of the top two Western Conference guards, but he’ll certainly be in the top 15 of the 24 All-Stars.

3. International players are wildly popular

The two leading All-Star vote-getters were born outside the United States, with Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) leading the Eastern Conference and Nikola Jokic (Serbia) tops in the Western Conference. The West’s leading guard, Gilgeous-Alexander, is from Canada and second-place Doncic is from Slovenia.

The fifth- and sixth-place front court players in the West, Victor Wembanyama and Alperen Sengun, are from France and Turkey. The seventh- and eighth-place Eastern front court players, Franz Wagner and Joel Embiid, are from Germany and Cameroon. That’s eight different countries represented at the top of All-Star voting. The NBA’s domestic ratings might be slipping but the game is thriving internationally. 

4. LeBron James is slipping

We have different standards for James than every other player, but it’s still a shock to see the perennial leader in All-Star votes coming in at third place among front court players. Of course, it’s amazing that a 40-year-old is still on pace to start the All-Star Game (three front court players make it). But trailing anyone, even if it’s three-time MVP Jokic and Kevin Durant, means James’ voting draw, just like his game, has slipped ever-so-slightly.

5. Fans are paying attention to the Magic. Sort of.

The Orlando Magic have flown under the radar the past two seasons. Despite finishing fifth in the East last season, they were scheduled for just five nationally-broadcast games. This year, Paolo Banchero joins teammate Wagner in the top-seven of the Eastern front court voting.

However, Banchero has played only five games this season before suffering an oblique injury. Wagner has been out since Dec. 6 with his own oblique issues. 

All-Star voters are finally recognizing Orlando’s success; they’re just not recognizing which Orlando players are actually on the court.