Giannis Antetokounmpo named starter in second straight All-Star appearance

For the second consecutive year, Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was voted in as a starter for this year’s All-Star game.

In the midst of an underachieving and frustrating year, Milwaukee Bucks fans got some nice, albeit unsurprising news Thursday evening regarding the team’s superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

For the second straight season, Antetokounmpo will appear as a starter for this year’s All-Star game, which will take place in Los Angeles, California February 18 at the Staples Center.

With the Bucks and fans from around the world putting in endless hours to make sure the 23-year-old earned another trip to the league’s biggest event of the season, Antetokounmpo’s All-Star bid was hardly in doubt, thanks to him taking yet another leap with his play so far this season.

In his 42 appearances so far, Antetokounmpo is averaging career highs in points (28.2), field goal percentage (54.6), rebounds (10.1), along with averaging 4.6 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks.

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Of course, Giannis’ bid was off to a rousing start as he was the leading vote getter for all players around the league when the first batch of returns were released a few weeks ago.

In the time since then, LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers eclipsed Antetokounmpo’s vote total and finished with just over a hundred thousand more fan votes than the Bucks’ superstar, though Antetokounmpo surprisingly ranked higher with more votes among players.

Had Antetokounmpo been named a captain, he would have been tasked with having to fill out his team under the All-Star game’s new format, which will be introduced for the first time this year.

Of course, considering we aren’t all that far removed from the All-Star drought the Bucks were mired during arguably their leanest years, it’s hard not to look at this in terms of what it means in the history of the franchise.

As the team’s Twitter account relayed shortly after the announcement, Antetokounmpo is the first player who will appear as a starter in consecutive All-Star games since Bucks legend and current analyst for Fox Sports Wisconsin Marques Johnson did it in 1979 and 1980.

Going nearly 40 years without accomplishing that feat only reinforces how remarkable Antetokounmpo’s exponential rise has caught everyone by storm and has unquestionably made him one of the league’s transcendent talents, both in the present and in the years to come.

Considering how the season has gone up until this point, the confirmation of Antetokounmpo’s All-Star appearance stands as a shining beacon of hope and will give Bucks fans a nice respite when the game takes place exactly a month from today (Thursday).

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With another accomplishment down in a growing resume of high honors, all that’s left is to see what’s in store when Giannis performs under the bright lights on the All-Star stage in Los Angeles.