Nikola Jokic is leading All-Star voting in the West

Nobody West of the Mississippi has more fan votes for this year’s All-Star Game than Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic.

The NBA shared their first polls for the Feb. 16 event at Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors. Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo paces the NBA with just over 1.7 million votes while three-time MVP and fellow frontcourt player Jokic is atop the West rank with over 1.4 million votes.

Voting runs through January 20, with another update coming in a week. Fans account for half of the vote to decide All-Star starter with media and players each accounting for another 25%.

It’s looking likey that Jokic will be an All-Star starter for a fifth time, making his seventh appearance in the mid-season exhibition. That’s because he’s absolutely tearing through the league again and is a co-favorite for MVP with Oklahoma City’s Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, who has the most votes in the West among backcourt players.

As Kirk Goldsberry noted in a recent episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast, Jokic is currently averaging more points than Shaq ever did in his career, more rebounds per game than Tim Duncan ever had per game in a season, and more assists than Chris Paul ever averaged in a season. Oh by the way, he’s tops in the league in three-point shooting at 49%. Here is what those marks look like on the season for Jokic, 30.7 points, 13.o assists, 9.7 assists and 1.7 steals a game on 56% shooting, which is good for the second-best season of all-time according to Player Efficiency Rating trailing only Jokic’s 2021-22 campaign that led the Nuggets to a title.

According to the fans now it would be Jokic, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Luka Doncic and SGA “starting” for the West. Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Karl-Anthony Towns, LaMelo Ball and Donovan Mitchell would get the nod in the East. With a new All-Star format in place this year the starters will work a bit differently.

According to the NBA, there will be a mini-tournament with four teams and three games. Two teams will meet in one semifinal (Game 1), and the remaining two teams will meet in the other semifinal (Game 2). The winning teams from Game 1 and Game 2 will advance to face each other in the championship (Game 3). For each game, the winner will be the first team to reach or surpass 40 points. Each team will have eight players and be named for a TNT analyst.

Nikola Jokić and Giannis Antetokounmpo lead their respective conferences in the first fan returns of #NBAAllStar Voting presented by AT&T.

Fans account for 50% of the vote to decide All-Star starters. NBA players and a media panel account for 25% each.

Next fan update: 1/9. pic.twitter.com/OoIIa3S3fn

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 2, 2025