January 05, 2017
Despite an impressive effort by the Sixers and a good chunk of their fans — Seriously, my Twitter timeline feels like it’s 80 percent #NBAVote tweets — Joel Embiid is not leading the NBA all-star voting. And truthfully, he's not even very close to the top.
But Embiid is still faring far better than any other rookie. “The Process” is fourth among Eastern Conference frontcourt players behind LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Kevin Love with 221,984 votes:
LeBron/Kyrie and KD/Curry lead first returns of #NBAAllStar Voting presented by @Verizon!
— 2017 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 5, 2017
Vote: https://t.co/7SYpaqHa1f & NBA App. pic.twitter.com/ofvgaJERkT
Embiid himself had gotten into the act of promoting the cause recently, playing up the idea of a secret famous crush (thought to be Rihanna) finally giving him the time of day if and when he finally became an all-star:
There is my chance to finally be with my CRUSH so i need your help y'all ha..... Joel Embiid #NBAVote https://t.co/lzxoKq2n10
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) December 29, 2016
“Rookie of the year would be great, but I don’t think it’s going to help me get to my crush so hopefully the all-star get to do that,” Embiid said after Tuesday night's win over Minnesota.
This year, fan voting only makes up 50 percent of determining the all-star starters. The other 50 percent will be split evenly between current players and a media panel. According to NBA.com, there are 10 days left to vote.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
