NBA 2016 All-Star Starters Announced, No Houston Rockets Selected

NBA 2016 All-Star Starters Announced

Well it’s not exactly as if the Houston Rockets have earned the right to have a starter in the NBA 2016 All-Star Game given their 22-22 record.

Preseason the hope was it would be a given James Harden would start beside Stephen Curry and the team would play well enough to have Dwight Howard in the conversation in terms of taking one of the three frontcourt starting spots.

TNT’s All-Star Special began with the panel of Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny “the Jet” Smith and Charles Barkley announcing the 2016 All-Star starters. These players were voted in by the fans while the remaining reserve players will be determined by the coaches.

The truth is fans of the Rockets weren’t really expecting either of their stars to make the team based on their 7th seed in the West and how much ground needed to be made up between the third vote update and tonight. Specifically James Harden sat fifth among guards and Dwight Howard ranked 12th among the frontcourt players.

Here are the 5 starters for each conference:

Western Conference Starters

Guards:

Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors received his third selection with the second most votes (behind Bryant) with 1,604,325

Western Conference All-Star Starter @StephenCurry30 of the @Warriors! #NBAAllStarTO pic.twitter.com/vZT7R0X8nF

— 2016 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 22, 2016

Russell Westbrook

of the Oklahoma City Thunder returns with his 5th selection receiving 772,009 votes. Westbrook was last years All-Star MVP.

Western Conference All-Star Starter @RussWest44 of the @OKCThunder! #NBAAllStarTO pic.twitter.com/xi2MGNGEwI

— 2016 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 22, 2016

Frontcourt:

Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers was the leading vote getter with 1,891,614 votes. This is his 18th selection and is notable as the fans are honoring his 20 year career which he has announced will be his last season.

Western Conference All-Star Starter @KobeBryant of the @Lakers! #NBAAllStarTO pic.twitter.com/wYFyvZiIr5

— 2016 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 22, 2016

Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder received 980,787 votes in his 7th selection to the All-Star Game.

Western Conference All-Star Starter @KDTrey5 of the @OKCThunder! #NBAAllStarTO pic.twitter.com/uDYnBiyl6U

— 2016 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 22, 2016

Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs was the player who came from behind to knock off Draymond Green by receiving 782,339 votes marking his first appearance at an All-Star Game.

Western Conference All-Star Starter @KawhiLeonard of the @Spurs! #NBAAllStarTO pic.twitter.com/53CCRkjQ4R

— 2016 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 22, 2016

Eastern Conference Starters

Guards:

Kyle Lowry of the host town Toronto Raptors received 646,441 votes and was the player in the East who made the big jump to knock off Kyrie Irving. This is Lowry’s second trip to the All-Star Game. He’ll hope to be joined by his equally worthy backcourt mate DeMar DeRozan.

Eastern Conference All-Star Starter @KLow7 of the @Raptors! #NBAAllStarTO pic.twitter.com/aX48lTLchm

— 2016 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 22, 2016

Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat received 941,466 votes to make this his 12th selection and 10th starting selection. Though Wade’s was the only NBA All-Star tweet I couldn’t find he more than made up for it with his own ample tweets which decidedly showed how genuinely grateful he was to be voted in as a starter:

Thankful to all my FANS for voting this old guy in as a starter for the 10th time in 12 years!!

And in a shout-out to his good friends James and Anthony he posted a picture of the 3 of them from much earlier days on his Instagram account:

I get to be a starter once again with my brothers!!! #dreamcometrue @kingjames @carmeloanthony… https://t.co/b0BCHbTGHb

— DWade (@DwyaneWade) January 22, 2016

Frontcourt:

LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers received 1,089,206 votes in his 12th All-Star selection and was the top Eastern Conference vote getter and only player in the East with a million votes.

Eastern Conference All-Star Starter @KingJames of the @Cavs! #NBAAllStarTO pic.twitter.com/STin8CXFtX

— 2016 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 22, 2016

Paul George of the Indiana Pacers makes his 3rd All-Star Game receiving 711,595 votes.

Eastern Conference All-Star Starter @YG_Trece of the @Pacers! #NBAAllStarTO pic.twitter.com/ZFCQZPbTPj

— 2016 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 22, 2016

Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks was selected to his 9th All-Star Game with 567,348 votes.

Eastern Conference All-Star Starter @CarmeloAnthony of the @NYKnicks! #NBAAllStarTO pic.twitter.com/T1ljWy1spO

— 2016 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 22, 2016

More from Space City Scoop

Next up the coaches will select the 7 reserves who’ll form the remainder of each squads team.

Ernie Johnson also updated with specifics on events such as:

Friday February 12th – at 9:00 PM ET, the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge followed by an Inside the NBA broadcast at 11 PM EST

Saturday February 13th – at 7 PM ET NBA Tip-Off presented by Autotrader followed at 8PM ET with the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night (including the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, Foot Loker Three-Point Contest and the Verizon Slam Dunk)

Sunday February 14th – at 7 PM ET NBA Tip-Off followed at 8:30 by the 2016 NBA All-Star Game presented by IKEA

For all details visit the nba.com under the All-Star section.

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