Steph Curry may be the heart and soul of the Golden State Warriors, but he’s not the team’s top All-Star vote-getter.
After the NBA released its first voting return for the 2018 All-Star Game, forward Kevin Durant leads all players around the league with more than 767,000 votes. With a new All-Star format that will buck the traditional East vs. West matchup, the player who receives the most votes from each conference will serve as a team captain for the game.
The #NBAAllStar Voting First Returns for Western Conference players!
VOTE NOW: https://t.co/UjbrNUQ7Vw pic.twitter.com/haLOOJnnVd
— 2018 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 4, 2018
Durant has a comfortable lead over every other frontcourt player in the Western Conference, while Curry is holding off James Harden of the Houston Rockets for the most votes received by a guard. Two other Warriors’ stars, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, rank fourth in their respective categories.
Starters for the game are determined by a combination of fan voting (50 percent), voting from current players (25 percent) and voting from basketball media (25 percent). The 14 reserves for the game will be selected by the NBA’s head coaches.
Durant leads all Warriors players with eight career All-Star nods, while Curry has been selected four times, Thompson three times and Green twice.
If the voting holds, there’s a strong likelihood that Durant or Curry will end up as one of the captains for the game, which will increase the pressure on a player who is forced to draft his remaining 11 teammates.