The NBA named the 10 players — five from each conference — who will be starting in the All-Star Game in Charlotte this season. As expected, Jazzmen Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell are not on the list.
In the Eastern Conference, guards Kyrie Irving and Kemba Walker were named starters, as were Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard and Joel Embiid for the three frontcourt spots. In the Western Conference, the guards selected were James Harden and Steph Curry, with LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Paul George named as frontcourt starters.
The 10 players were selected through a combination of fan vote (50 percent), player vote (25 percent) and media vote (25 percent).
Though the local talent didn’t make the NBA’s top 10, they did receive substantial numbers of votes. Donovan Mitchell received 417,390 fan votes, good for 11th among guards, and Rudy Gobert received 196,040, good for 21st among frontcourt players. Here are the full fan voting tallies for the Jazz guards:
Donovan Mitchell: 417,390
Ricky Rubio: 78,842
Kyle Korver: 48,710
Dante Exum: 20,517
Grayson Allen: 18,350
Raul Neto: 7,088
Naz Mitrou-Long: 3,234
And the Jazz’s frontcourt players:
Rudy Gobert: 196,040
Joe Ingles: 77,335
Derrick Favors: 28,213
Jae Crowder: 28,076
Royce O’Neale: 8,163
Ekpe Udoh: 6,518
Thabo Sefolosha: 6,236
Georges Niang: 2,942
Tony Bradley: 2,552
Tyler Cavanaugh: 2,126
Several Jazz players also received votes to be named All-Star starters from their teammates. Here’s the number of votes each received.
Rudy Gobert: 12
Donovan Mitchell: 10
Joe Ingles: 2
Tony Bradley: 2
Ricky Rubio: 2
Grayson Allen: 2
Dante Exum: 1
Jae Crowder: 1
Royce O’Neale: 1
Only 12 Western Conference players received media votes to be among the five starters. Curry and Harden earned the vast majority of the guard votes, but Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard and Klay Thompson earned one or two votes each. In the frontcourt, James, Durant, George, Davis and Nikola Jokic earned the lion’s share, while Luka Doncic and Gobert got two and one vote respectively.
Seven players from each conference will be named All-Star reserves, to be announced on Jan. 31. Those are entirely selected by voting from each conference’s 15 head coaches. Gobert seems to have a good shot at being named to the team, even being called a “lock” by ESPN’s Zach Lowe. Mitchell’s odds are far slimmer thanks to a slower start to the season.
Once the reserves are named, James and Antetokounmpo, the leading vote getters from each conference, will be captains and make alternate picks in a televised All-Star draft on Feb. 7 at 5 p.m. MST on TNT.
