The NBA announced their starters for the 2019 NBA All-Star Game, and what’s a little more interesting than the actual names in the game are the numbers behind how they got there. The league also released the voting breakdown all players receiving votes in this year’s ballot.
8 takeaways from 2019 NBA All-Star voting
Anthony Davis and Paul George were tied, Brooklyn’s got some home cookin’, and other things the ballot taught us.
Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
There are a few stories hidden behind those numbers.
Did they get the starters right?
Captains: LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo
Player Pool: Kevin Durant, Paul George, Stephen Curry, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker, Kawhi Leonard, Joel Embiid
The players having the 10 best seasons in the NBA will be starting in this year’s All-Star Game. You can argue Anthony Davis vs. Paul George all day, but most people should be happy with this lineup.
Wait, Anthony Davis and Paul George were... tied?
Here’s how Davis and George’s respective voting panned out, with their rank among the other members of the West front court listed as well. The NBA based their formula not on the actual votes, but on how players ranked among their peers.
Davis player votes: 136 — rank: 3
George player votes: 76 — rank: 4
Davis fan votes: 2,520,728 — rank: 5
George fan votes: 3,122,346 — rank: 4
Davis media votes: 66 — rank: 3
George media votes: 43 — rank: 4
Fan votes are worth 50 percent of the vote, with the remaining 50 percent split between player and media votes. The league lists the formula that determines a player’s score is as “Fan Rank * 2 + Player Rank + Media Rank)/4”
Davis and George both emerged from this equation tied with a score of four. But here it is in the fine print: “Fan votes served as the tiebreaker for players in a position group with the same score.”
George secured just under 600,000 more fan votes than Davis. In the end, that made all the difference.
Those who received very few media votes
Kyle Lowry — 4
Luka Doncic — 2
Russell Westbrook — 2
Rudy Gobert — 1
Jayson Tatum — 1
Pascal Siakam — 1
Nikola Vucevic — 1
Klay Thompson — 1
Damian Lillard — 1
Derrick Rose — 0
The biggest surprise here is Doncic, who finished with 4.2 million fan votes (the third-highest among all players) but missed the nod as an All-Star starter because he got no love from the media. Most of the Western Conference front court media votes were split between LeBron, Durant, George, Davis and Jokic.
Another note: Rose finished with 3.3 million fan votes but missed the nod as a starter because he got zero votes from media. That’s because 196 of 200 possible media votes were split between Stephen Curry and James Harden.
No love for D-Wade
Dwyane Wade received 2.2 million and could have snuck into the the All-Star starting lineup had that been the only criteria. But Kemba Walker absolutely drubbed him in media votes, 48-5, and among players, 98-41. Wade is on his farewell tour, but Walker is having the best season of his life.
John Wall only received 2 player votes
What a fall from grace for an explosive guard who was once considered a perennial All-Star. Get healthy, soon.
Zaza Mania is dead
Only 21,525 fan votes for Zaza Pachulia this year. This is a man who nearly made the All-Star Game in 2017 with 440,000 fan votes. Thank God he’s in Detroit, and not in Golden State.
Did these guys vote for themselves?
Here’s a list of every player with exactly one vote from the players to be an All-Star starter:
Wes Iwundu, Lance Thomas, Khem Birch, Troy Brown, Mitchell Robinson, Markieff Morris, Taurean Prince, DeAndre Bembry, Amir Johnson, Noah Vonleh, Rodney McGruder, Alex Len, Dewayne Dedmon, Otto Porter, Jared Dudley, Doug McDermott, Marvin Williams, Channing Frye, Mario Hezonja, James Johnson, Kelly Olynyk, Chris Boucher, Cristiano Felicio, Willy Hernangomez, Joe Harris, Thon Maker, Enes Kanter, Cedi Osman, Jonas Valanciunas, Hassan Whiteside
And that’s just the Eastern Conference front court. In total, 101 players had exactly one player vote in the All-Star voting returns.
There are two possibilities here:
- Either some of these guys are best friends and agreed to vote for each other, which is very possible, I might add;
- or they absolutely used their power to vote for themselves as All-Star starters. Not mad at it at all.
Two of the players who had one All-Star player vote are Rajon Rondo and Hassan Whiteside. You be the judge.
Did the Nets vote in-house?
D’Angelo Russell and Spencer Dinwiddie hauled in 15 player votes apiece and rightfully so. Both are having outstanding seasons worthy of All-Star consideration.
But Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who has been removed from the starting lineup, received four player votes. Rodions Kurucs, who replaced Hollis-Jefferson, received three. Ed Davis, who comes off the bench as a defensive anchor, received two votes, and both Joe Harris and Jared Dudley received one.
Brooklyn is as close-knit a group as you’ll find in the league.
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