Giannis Antetokounmpo Receives Second-Most All-Star Frontcourt Votes in East

Dec 21, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) drives to the basket against Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) during the first half at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 21, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) drives to the basket against Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) during the first half at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /
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Although there is still time before All-Star voting ends, as it currently sits Giannis Antetokounmpo is second among Eastern Conference forwards to only LeBron James.

All of Milwaukee’s efforts to get Giannis Antetokounmpo into the All-Star game have been effective so far. According to the first release of results from fan voting, only LeBron James has gotten more votes among Eastern Conference frontcourt players.

Giannis has just over 500,000 votes thus far, an impressive total that ranks seventh among all NBA players. LeBron is in first, followed by Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and then Giannis. That’s pretty good company!

Currently there is no player threatening Giannis for his starting spot in the All-Star game. Kevin Love is the next-ranking frontcourt player in the East, and he’s got around half of the votes Giannis does.

Even so, since three frontcourt players start in the All-Star Game it would take both Kevin Love and Joel Embiid passing Giannis for him to lose his spot. This is a great start, but to ensure the Greek Freak gets his well-deserved first All-Star appearance fans need to keep on voting!

Jabari Parker is getting some shine too. He’s currently tenth among Eastern Conference frontcourt players, with over 64,000 votes. Luckily for Jabari’s sake, the reserves for the game are picked by coaches, meaning he could still have a shot there.

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If Giannis or Jabari (or both!) make it, they would be Milwaukee’s first All-Stars since Michael Redd made the 2004 All-Star Game. Giannis seems like a lock at this point, but it’s still vital to continue voting!

Changes to the All-Star voting mean that media and players both get a 25 percent say in the starting five, with fan vote making up the other 50 percent. Fans can vote in several ways.

One of the most common is through Twitter. Tweeting a player’s full name plus the hashtag #NBAVote casts a vote for that player. So tweet out Giannis Antetokounmpo #NBAVote or Jabari Parker #NBAVote to help that way! Keep in mind you can only vote for one player per tweet. Simple retweet the following two tweets to vote for both Jabari and Giannis!

You can also vote on FaceBook with the same method/hashtag, or vote by Googling All-Star Game Voting or via NBA.com or the NBA App. No matter how you do it, make sure to get out and vote Giannis early and often!