LeBron James, Stephen Curry 3rd in spots in NBA All-Star voting

The NBA’s first round of All-Star voting was released Thursday afternoon, and in the latest sign of a transition in eras in the association, LeBron James and Stephen Curry are tied for third at their respective positions.

James ranks third overall in the West frontcourt voting – still in a starting spot – with 1.17 million votes, and sits behind Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (1.4 million votes) and Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant (1.27 million ), although James has a healthy lead for the third and final starting spot over Los Angeles Lakers teammate Anthony Davis and San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, who each have over 900,000 votes cast.

Golden State’s Curry, meanwhile, could find himself coming off the bench for the second straight year out West, sitting behind Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (1.05 million votes) and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, if 870,071 votes is about 60,000 ahead of Curry’s tally.

However, Doncic is out for the next few weeks with a calf strain, which could allow Curry to get back into the mix to start in his home All-Star Game in San Francisco in February.

In the East, Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo — after snapping James’ seven-year streak as the top vote-getter last year — leads all vote-getters again this year with 1.7 million votes cast so far. He is followed by Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (1.38 million), who is on track to make his sixth All-Star game appearance, while New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns had the third starting spot with just over 1 million votes.

No other Eastern front-runner has even half a million votes, which puts the three in a very strong position to finish the voting in those three spots.

The closest battle of all the position groups comes in the East backcourt, where LaMelo Ball is tied for first place with just under a million votes, but Donovan Mitchell of the NBA-leading Cleveland Cavaliers is just 13,000 votes ahead of Bucks guard Damian Lillard for the second starting spot in east.

Jalen Brunson is fourth with just under 500,000 votes, and Trae Young is fifth with just over 350,000.

The vote tallies will be updated again on January 9th and January 16th, with voting ending on Monday, January 20th. The fan vote makes up 50% of the vote when it comes to who starts, with the media and player votes accounting for 25% each. .

The starters for both conferences will be announced on January 23, and the reserves will be revealed a week later.