Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets lead all Eastern and Western Conference players in early 2025 returns, respectively. NBA All-Star voting. Since voting opened on December 19, Antetokounmpo has received 1,710,630 votes, the first among all players. Jokic received 1,422,121 votes. The NBA shared the first voting update on Thursday.
In the Eastern Conference, Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics and Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks are behind Antetokounmpo but far ahead of every other frontcourt player. LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets has the most votes among East guards, with Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers at No. 2 and Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks hot on Lillard’s heels.
In the Western Conference, Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns is about 150,000 votes behind Jokic’s total and LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers is third among power forwards. (James’ teammate Anthony Davis is about 17,000 votes behind James, and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs is about 71,000 behind Davis.) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder has the most votes among all backcourt players, and Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is about 60,000 votes ahead of Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors for second place in the West.
The full results:
This year’s All-Star Game will have a new format: Instead of a game, there will be a mini-tournament, featuring three eight-player All-Star teams (who will be drafted by Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal) and the winner of the Rising Stars challenge . The way All-Stars are selected, however, has not changed. There will always be 10 “starters” (three starting players and two guards in each conference), and they will be determined by fan vote (50%), a panel of current NBA players (25%) and members of the media (25%). NBA coaches will select the reserves.
The second returns will be published on January 9 and voting will close on January 20. The starters will be announced on January 23 and the reserves on January 30. The All-Star Game will take place on January 23. February 16 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
