After the second return of fan voting for the 2024-25 NBA All-Star Game, Damian Lillard is in third place for Eastern Conference guards behind LaMelo Ball and Donovan Mitchell. As the Milwaukee guard looks to get his ninth All-Star selection, Bucks frontman Giannis Antetokounmpo urged fans to vote.
In a post to his Instagram story Thursday morning, the Greek Freak posted a photo of himself and Lillard on the court, urging fans to go vote for his Milwaukee co-star.
In response, Lillard posted Antetokounmpo’s story on his own, adding:
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“pick me up sir lol”
Lillard is just over 161,500 votes out of second place, while Antetokounmpo leads not only the Eastern Conference frontcourt vote but all players league-wide in fan voting.
The starters for both teams are selected based on votes from fans, NBA players and the media. Reserve players are then selected based on votes from coaches across the league, with each conference selecting seven reserves.
Ahead of February’s All-Star Weekend, the starters will be announced Jan. 23 on TNT, with the reserves then announced Jan. 30 during the network’s TNT NBA Tip-Off broadcast.
Looking at Damian Lillard’s case for an All-Star selection this season
As previously mentioned, Damian Lillard is currently ranked third among Eastern Conference guards. With LaMelo Ball nearly 500,000 votes ahead of Lillard and more than 300,000 votes ahead of Donovan Mitchell, it looks like he will likely earn his second All-Star selection.
The question now is whether Damian Lillard can surpass Donovan Mitchell to guarantee his place as a starting All-Star or if he should hope for a spot as a reserve.
If the current rankings hold and Donovan Mitchell secures the No. 2 guard spot in the Eastern Conference, Lillard still has a strong chance to earn his ninth All-Star selection.
Lillard is averaging 24.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
At the same time, he has improved both his field goal percentage and his 3-point percentage from last year while helping lead Milwaukee to fifth place in the Eastern Conference despite a slow start to the season.
As indicated by fan votes, along with Lillard, both Jalen Brunson and Trae Young have cases to be selected as All-Star reserves for Eastern Conference guards. Brunson helped lead the Knicks to third place in the East while averaging 25.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 7.6 assists on 47.7 percent shooting.
In Young’s case, while the Hawks sit in ninth place in the East, Young leads the league with 12.2 assists per game, a significant jump from his 10.8 apg average last season. Additionally, Young is averaging 22.6 points and 1.3 steals per game on 40.1% shooting from the floor.
Given that, while Damian Lillard has a strong chance of being selected as the Eastern Conference guard, it is clear that there is stiff competition.
Edited by Evan Bell