As the calendar turns to 2025, the NBA All-Star Game is just around the corner. While the game itself has become a point of frustration for seemingly everyone (players, fans, media, and the league itself), the honor of being named an All-Star still matters a lot to all those parties as well.
With a 6 weeks until the 2025 All-Star Game in San Francisco, the NBA released the first round of fan voting results on Thursday. For the first time in a long time, LeBron James is not a lock for a starting spot and does not lead his conference in fan voting, as Nikola Jokic is first in the West ahead of Kevin Durant and then LeBron. Not far behind James in fan voting for the final West frontcourt spot are his teammate, Anthony Davis, and the NBA’s next young superstar, Victor Wembanyama.
In the East, Giannis Antetokounmpo once again is the leading vote-getter at the first checkpoint and has the most votes of any player in the league, with Jayson Tatum and Karl-Anthony Towns rounding out the top 3. They have a massive lead on the rest of the East frontcourt vote-getters, with Paolo Banchero (who has barely played this season) fourth.
As is often the case, the guard voting is much more scattered, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic leading in the West, with Stephen Curry not far behind in third. In the East, it’s LaMelo Ball in first followed by Donovan Mitchell and then Damian Lillard. Ball is probably the biggest surprise in voting right now, but he’s also averaging 30.1 points and 7.4 assists per game this season and is an incredibly fun player to watch (and has a lot of support among the younger generation of fans). As always, it’s important to remember that fan voting now counts for just 50 percent of the calculations for the All-Star starters, with the players and media each getting 25 percent of the vote.
Also, while starters will be locked in to spots before the coaches vote on reserves, this year’s format will see three teams of 8 players drafted by the Inside the NBA crew for the new mini-tournament. That means we won’t actually see these starting fives on the floor all together, but as of this moment this is who would have an All-Star spot if the fans have their way.
EAST: LaMelo Ball, Donovan Mitchell, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Karl-Anthony Towns
WEST: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Kevin Durant, LeBron James
