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Boston Celtics guard Kyrie Irving was named a starter for the 2019 NBA All-Star Game. Irving was the leading vote-getter among all Eastern Conference backcourt players. This marks Irving’s sixth All-Star appearance in his career.
Voting is made up of 50% fan, 25% media and 25% player votes. Irving performed well in all three areas. He had the most votes among fans of all backcourt players in the entire NBA. He was a unanimous choice to start by the media and garnered 190 votes to start from his fellow players.
For the season Irving is averaging 23.5 points per game and career-highs with 4.8 rebounds per game and 6.9 assists per game. He’s also hitting a career-best 50.1 percent of his shots from the field and the second-best percentage of his career from behind the arc at 41.3 percent.
Celtics second-year forward Jayson Tatum finished fourth in Eastern Conference voting for the frontcourt. Tatum was fourth in fan voting, fourth in media voting and seventh in player voting. The 20-year old forward is averaging 16.3 points per game and 6.2 rebounds per game.
All-Star reserves, which are chosen by conference by the coaches in each conference, will be announced next week. At that point we’ll see if Boston has a second All-Star or not. Even if Irving is the only All-Star, the Celtics will reportedly be represented by Jayson Tatum in the Skills Challenge. Tatum will also likely play in the Rising Stars Game and could be joined by teammate Robert Williams in that game.
Irving is joined by Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Joel Embiid and Kemba Walker as starters from the Eastern Conference. Starters from the Western Conference are LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Paul George, Stephen Curry and James Harden.
James and Antetokounmpo will be the captains for the NBA All-Star Draft, which will be televised for the first time on Thursday February 7th. As the leading fan vote-getter, James will have first pick among the other eight starters. Antetokounmpo will have the first pick among the 14 reserve players, which will be announced next week.
The NBA All-Star Game will take place on Sunday February 16th in Charlotte, North Carolina. It will be broadcast on TNT.