Sportsbook Site – Kobe, not LeBron Leads All-Star Voting. The game will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 20th. Hometown star Kobe Bryant will be getting a lot of fan support and he could be the top vote-getter. Numbers at the sportsbook page showed that he was leading all NBA players in votes and that includes Miami’s LeBron James.
West Leaders
Kobe would be joined on the Western Conference squad by New Orleans’ Chris Paul, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant and Denver’s Carmelo Anthony. Houston’s Yao Ming was leading at center in large part because the voting is open around the world and Yao gets a ton of support in China. Yao is injured and out for the year and possibly for the rest of his career. A replacement will be chosen by NBA commissioner David Stern and then the Western Conference head coach would choose the starter. Bryant and Durant are safely in as starters in the West as is Chris Paul but Anthony could be caught in the voting by the Lakers’ Pau Gasol. The decision as to who will replace Yao is a tough one as no center in the West is that great. Andrew Bynum of the Lakers is second in the voting and he has been hurt most of the year. The rest of the candidates like Nene, Marc Gasol and Brendan Haywood don’t inspire a lot of excitement on the sportsbook page either.
East Leaders
The sportsbook site indicates that the leading vote getters in the Eastern conference are LeBron, Miami’s Dwyane Wade, Boston’s Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo and Orlando’s Dwight Howard. The voting is not close so hopefully things will change in the East as New York’s Amar’e Stoudemire is clearly the best forward. He won’t catch LeBron but he is well within striking range of Garnett. There is also a possibility that Rondo will miss out on starting as Chicago’s Derrick Rose is very close in the voting. There is no debate at center as Howard has a huge lead over second place Shaquille O’Neal.
The Sbg global sportsbook will have odds on the NBA All-Star game available next month.