Dončić selected as starter for NBA All-Star Game
New York, 24 January - Luka Dončić has been selected as a Western Conference starter for the 2020 NBA All-Star Game, becoming the youngest European and the first Slovenian ever to be selected directly to play in the prestigious exhibition game. In the fan voting, the 20-year-old was second only to the NBA great LeBron James.
New York, US
NBA player Luka Dončić.
Photo: Robi Poredoš/STA
File photo
Ranking the highest among Western Conference guards, Dončić has been selected as one of the ten starters for the game scheduled for 16 February in Chicago.
For his position, he got the highest number of votes from other players, the highest number of votes from fans (6.11 million), and the highest number of total media votes.
Votes from fans make up 50% of the result, while the other two votes account for 25% each.
Just like last year, the winners of the vote, declared last night, were James (6.27 million fan votes) in the Western Conference and Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo (5.9 million fan votes) in the Eastern Conference.
Having accumulated the most votes in their respective conferences, they get to pick the players for their teams, with reserves to be announced next Thursday.
Interestingly, in terms of fan votes alone, Dončić did better than Antetokounmpo, who was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the league for the previous season.
Dončić will be the second Slovenian ever to appear in the NBA All-Star Game, following Goran Dragić in 2018, who made the team as an injury replacement and did not get voted in directly.
The selection of Dončić is no surprise as he is arguably one of the best players in the current season, averaging 29.1 points, 9.6 rebounds and 9 assists per game for a player efficiency rating of 29.93 (3rd in the league).