Mavs Luka Dončić Picked over Blazers Damian Lillard as All-Star Game Starter
Damian Lillard is used to wacky things happening around the All-Star Game. He’s been snubbed from making the game, but now he got snubbed as a starter.
Luka Dončić and Lillard reportedly tied after the media and player voting, but the fan vote pushed Dončić over the top.
Luka Doncic is the second starting guard for the West over Damian Lillard; they tied for the spot in the NBA’s weighted rankings, but Doncic earned the tiebreaker because he had more fan votes.
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) February 19, 2021
Also, 64% of media voted for Damian Lillard. 30% voted for Luka Doncic.
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) February 19, 2021
The official numbers looked like this:
Media Votes
- Stephen Curry – 172
- Lillard – 131
- Dončić – 58
Player Votes
- Curry – 96
- Lillard – 64
- Dončić – 30
Fan Voting
- Curry – 5,481,033
- Dončić – 3,335,042
- Lillard – 2,848,663
Obviously, Lillard has come on strong lately, but as we know being an All-Star starter is all about popularity. As popular as Lillard is, he doesn’t have what Dončić does: Slovenia.
Now, I can’t prove that Slovenia voting pushed Dončić over the top, however, it is his home country. So, it’s plausible to think that he got some help from home via social media or voting on NBA.com.
Regardless, the players and the media gave their opinions as they usually do on Twitter.
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) February 19, 2021
— Kevin Love (@kevinlove) February 19, 2021
Anyone else have Dame as early favorite for ASG MVP???
— Kevin Love (@kevinlove) February 19, 2021
“Luka named All-Star game starter”
Dame: pic.twitter.com/zt6e6re5dL
— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) February 19, 2021
Also, you gotta feel bad for the Washington Wizards. They’re Portland’s next opponent, and we all know how Lillard usually goes off against opponents after bad All-Star Game news.
DAME ISN’T A STARTER?!??
How I’ll be watching his next game knowing he’s about to drop 19298281 points… pic.twitter.com/JLw8jzvN5q
— Larry Nance Jr (@Larrydn22) February 19, 2021
I feel bad for Washington’s defense on Saturday, Dame is gonna have himself a field day pic.twitter.com/CN2yOeKpML
— (@503Blazerfans) February 19, 2021
If you’ve read this far, it only seemed fair to give you the full All-Star Game starting lineups.
Western Conference
- LeBron James* (frontcourt)
- Curry (guard),
- Dončić (guard),
- Nikola Jokić (frontcourt), &
- Kawhi Leonard (frontcourt)
Eastern Conference
- Kevin Durant* (frontcourt)
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (frontcourt),
- Bradley Beal (guard),
- Joel Embiid (frontcourt), &
- Kyrie Irving (guard)
James and Durant are the All-Star Game captains and will select their teams during the 2021 All-Star Draft on Thursday, March 4 at 5 p.m. PT.
