NEW YORK — LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers is effectively on his solution to catching Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on greater than the NBA’s profession scoring record.
James is on tempo to be an All-Star for the nineteenth time, after the NBA mentioned Thursday he stays the general main vote-getter for the Feb. 19 recreation in Salt Lake Metropolis.
Abdul-Jabbar is the one 19-time All-Star in NBA historical past. James and Kobe Bryant are 18-time picks, and James entered Thursday 423 factors away from passing Abdul-Jabbar because the NBA’s all-time scoring chief.
James had 4,825,229 votes getting into Thursday. That places him in place to be a captain for the sixth consecutive yr — and probably opposing Kevin Durant for the third straight time.
Durant, the Brooklyn Nets star who is predicted to overlook a few month after spraining a knee ligament earlier this week, is the highest vote-getter within the Japanese Convention, with 4,509,238 getting into Thursday.
The highest three frontcourt gamers and prime two guards in every convention will probably be chosen as starters, with the main general vote-getters from every convention serving as captains and selecting their groups.
James tops the record of Western Convention frontcourt gamers. Denver’s Nikola Jokic remained in second (3,441,893) and the Lakers’ Anthony Davis remained third (2,950,563).
Durant leads East frontcourt gamers, simply forward of Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (4,467,306). However Boston’s Jayson Tatum moved forward of Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid this week for the third spot; Tatum had 3,281,124 votes, whereas Embiid had 3,248,733.
Golden State’s Stephen Curry leads all guards within the balloting with 3,901,808 votes. Dallas’ Luka Doncic remained No. 2 behind Curry amongst West guards with 3,649,647 votes.
The highest two vote-getters amongst East guards was additionally unchanged: Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving leads with 3,024,833 votes, and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell is second with 2,725,558.
Fan voting counts for 50% of the starters balloting, a media poll counts for 25% and the ballots turned in by NBA gamers depend for the opposite 25%.
James has been a captain in all 5 earlier makes use of of that course of, going 5-0 in All-Star Video games. His crew beat a Durant-picked crew in 2021 and 2022, beat groups picked by Antetokounmpo in 2019 and 2020, and beat a crew picked by Curry in 2018.
Durant didn’t play in both of these video games in 2021 or 2022 due to harm.
Voting continues via Jan. 21. The captains and the starters will probably be introduced Jan. 26. Reserves – chosen by NBA coaches – will probably be revealed Feb. 2. The All-Star captains will then draft their groups, most likely within the second week of February.