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Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard is No. 6 among backcourt players in the first returns from the NBA All-Star Game fan vote, the NBA announced Thursday afternoon. Lillard has received 200,609 votes so far, which places him above the Spurs’ DeMar DeRozan (197,524 votes) and below the Warriors’ Klay Thompson (247,618 votes):
LeBron/Steph and Giannis/Kyrie lead the first returns of #NBAAllStar Voting 2019 presented by @Google!
— 2019 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 3, 2019
Vote on https://t.co/R6fBO5LSAS, the NBA App or by searching for your favorite player or team on Google.
Vote now! https://t.co/gcW4K59HC0 pic.twitter.com/JIZFyIC2Pu
As Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck points out, the fan vote is only 50 percent of the All-Star starter voting criteria, with the player and media votes each counting for 25 percent on their own:
Further reminder: Fan voting only counts for 50% in selecting All-Star starters. The other 50% comes from current players (25%) and a media panel (25%). But it's the fan vote alone that determines the two captains. https://t.co/h3JZ53G0PR
— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) January 3, 2019
All-Star reserves are chosen through a vote by the head coaches in the player’s respective conference.
Lillard is currently averaging 26.7 points, 5.8 assists and 4.8 rebounds in 35.4 minutes per game; he is a three-time All-Star.
The NBA All-Star Game is Feb. 17 and will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina. The West backcourt is currently led by Stephen Curry (793,111 votes) after the first returns.