Giannis leads NBA All-Star fan vote

The first set of returns are out, and there is a surprise early leader in the NBA All-Star fan vote.

Milwaukee Bucks do-it-all superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo emerged as the leading vote-getter in the race to be named as one of the two captains in the NBA All-Star Game. The "Greek Freak" received 863,416 votes for the top spot in the Eastern Conference, beating out LeBron James by over seven thousand votes. The Cavs superstar is one of two other players with over eight hundred thousand votes, alongside former teammate Kyrie Irving.

For the other captaincy, Kevin Durant is leading his teammate Stephen Curry, 767,402 to 735,115. James Harden is the only other in the Western Conference with over five hundred thousand votes, at 602,040.

The league will next update the tabulations on January 12. Deadline for voting is at 1159pm on January 15 (which is 1259am on January 16). The pool of starters, including the captains, will be announced on NBA Tip-Off on January 19 (Manila time).

The fan vote comprises fifty percent of the computations needed to determine the All-Star Game Starters. One fourth of the computation depends on votes from the media, while the remaining one fourth depends on votes from the players.

The computation to determine the pool of All-Star starters can be seen below:

After all votes are tallied, players will be ranked in each conference by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups – fan votes, player votes and media votes.  Each player’s score will be calculated by averaging his weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes and the media votes.  The five players (two guards and three frontcourt players) with the best score in each conference will be named NBA All-Star Game starters.  Fan voting will serve as the tiebreaker for players in a position group with the same score.

The leading vote-getters can be seen below.

Eastern Conference

Frontcourt
1. Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL) 863,416
2. LeBron James (CLE) 856,080
3. Joel Embiid (PHI) 433,161
4. Kristaps Porzingis (NYK) 359,459
5. Kevin Love (CLE) 221,969
6. Al Horford (BOS) 120,016
7. Jayson Tatum (BOS) 98,586
8. Andre Drummond (DET) 85,374
9. Enes Kanter (NYK) 83,102
10. Dwight Howard (CHA) 57,730

Guards
1. Kyrie Irving (BOS) 802,834
2. DeMar DeRozan (TOR) 259,368
3. Victor Oladipo (IND) 251,886
4. Ben Simmons (PHI) 210,085
5. John Wall (WAS) 175,990
6. Dwyane Wade (CLE) 165,163
7. Isaiah Thomas (CLE) 87,680
8. Kyle Lowry (TOR) 85,070
9. Bradley Beal (WAS) 71,079
10. Jaylen Brown (BOS) 51,562

Western Conference

Frontcourt
1. Kevin Durant (GSW) 767,402
2. Anthony Davis (NOP) 393,000
3. DeMarcus Cousins (NOP) 356,340
4. Draymond Green (GSW) 325,612
5. Paul George (OKC) 291,495
6. Kawhi Leonard (SAS) 212,650
7. Carmelo Anthony (OKC) 194,239
8. Karl-Anthony Towns (MIN) 188,240
9. Kyle Kuzma (LAL) 184,338
10. LaMarcus Aldridge (SAS) 153,599

Guards
1. Stephen Curry (GSW) 735,115
2. James Harden (HOU) 602,040
3. Russell Westbrook (OKC) 438,469
4. Klay Thompson (GSW) 359,442
5. Manu Ginobili (SAS) 231,460
6. Chris Paul (HOU) 174,343
7. Damian Lillard (POR) 148,622
8. Lonzo Ball (LAL) 120,817
9. Devin Booker (PHO) 91,562
10. Jimmy Butler (MIN) 88,009

Fans can vote in a variety of ways, all of which are documented here.