American NBA legends like LeBron James and Stephen Curry are two of the biggest names in the sport, and they have dominated the court for years for their respective sides, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors. In addition, the duo played a pivotal role in team United States’ 98-87 nail-biting victory over France, which marked the US’s seventh consecutive gold and 17th overall.
Despite their immense success on the court this year and for so many years, there was a decline seen in the latest NBA All-Star voting, where both these legends failed to secure the top two spots. The superstars of such stature missing out on the top sport find out who has surpassed them as a new era of basketball prodigies takes over the lead spots in the poll.
A list to watch out for
LeBron James took the third spot in the West frontcourt voting with 1.17 million votes, and the four-time NBA champion is behind his peers like Nikola Jokic, who has amassed 1.4 million votes and has grabbed the top spot. James’ Paris Olympics teammate and the Phoenix Suns icon Kevin Durant is in second place. Despite ranking third, James has managed to surpass his Lakers teammate Anthony Davis and the San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama.
On the other hand, Warriors’ prodigy Steph Curry has taken the third spot in the Western Conference guard poll, and he found himself trailing the Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and the Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who have gained 870,071 and 1.05 million votes, respectively. Curry is likely to surpass Doncic, who is out for the next few days after sustaining a calf injury. With an All-Star game schedule on his home soil of San Francisco in February, Curry would be looking to make a mark.
In the Eastern Conference, the Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo has secured the most votes for the second consecutive year, leading all players with 1.7 million votes. He is followed by Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, who has earned 1.38 million votes, and New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, who also surpassed one million votes.
