Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic top vote getters in early fan voting for NBA All-Star Game

The fans have spoken and they want to see Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and LaMelo Ball.

The early returns for the NBA All-Star Game fan voting are in — with fans getting to vote for five starters from each conference — and there are some familiar names at the top. Based on the voting, the starters would be:

Eastern Conference

Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
Jayson Tatum (Celtics)
Karl-Anthony Towns (Knicks)
LaMelo Ball (Hornets)
Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers)

Western Conference

Nikola Jokic (Nuggets)
Kevin Durant (Suns)
LeBron James (Lakers)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder)
Luka Doncic (Mavericks)

The fan votes — which can be cast through Jan. 20 at NBA.com — will count for 50% of picking the starters, with votes from the players (25%) and media (25%) added to that mix. While the fans help choose the starters, the seven reserves for each conference are selected by a vote of the coaches.

This year, the format for the All-Star Game has changed, with the NBA trying something else to spark real competition into what has been a dud of a headlining event for several years.

The 12 All-Stars from each conference (24 players in total) will be divided up into three teams of eight players each, with each of the former players on TNT’s Inside the NBA — Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny “the Jet” Smith — serving as the GMs drafting the squads. Those three teams, plus the winning team from Friday night’s Rising Star Challenge (a game of rookies and second-year-players), will enter into a four-team tournament with games to 40. A kind of mini-tournament with shorter games (an idea the NHL has used in its All-Star events, although that league goes with a 3-on-3 tournament). Players such as Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis complained about the new format, saying that they wish it were still just East vs. West, but that’s what the league did last year and the players showed no competitive spirit in the game. It was unwatchable. Who knows whether this new format works or not, but the NBA had to try something.

What is true is that the biggest names in the NBA will be there, and the fans will get their say in who they are.