Will ‘One Last Dance’ include one last All-Star Game for Dwyane Wade? The latest voting numbers
One thing is for sure, a lot of fans want to see Dwyane Wade start in next month’s NBA All-Star Game.
In the final release of fan voting results made public Thursday before All-Star starters are announced next week, Wade stands second among Eastern Conference guards. He’s in his 16th and final season before retirement.
Boston’s Kyrie Irving (3,187,015) is currently the only East guard with more votes than Wade (1,738,043), who is ahead of other top candidates such as Charlotte’s Kemba Walker (1,156,040), Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons (941,368) and Indiana’s Victor Oladipo (778,983).
The next question is, will the media and players vote Wade in as an All-Star starter?
While fan balloting accounts for 50 percent of the vote to determine the All-Star Game’s 10 starters, players and a media panel each account for 25 percent of the vote. Every voter submits a ballot with two guards and three front-court players from each conference to determine the starters.
Wade is a 12-time All-Star and has been voted in as a starter 10 times over the first 15 seasons of his NBA career.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Wade said earlier this week of the possibility of playing in the All-Star Game. “I’ve been around great players for a while in my career. One last hurrah is not going to make or break what I feel about my career.
“I’ll be down there anyway, will be around some of the guys anyway, so it’s really not a big deal for me. It’s cool from a fan perspective that they have some of their favorite players, that no matter what they will always see them on that stage. But you want the guys that deserve to be in the All-Star Game, who had the best first half of the season, to be able to go live out a dream. I had that opportunity multiple times, so you want those guys to be able to do it.”
The only other Heat player among the Top 10 in the voting among guards or front-court players is sidelined point guard Goran Dragic, who is ninth among East guards.
Wade, who turned 37 on Thursday, is averaging 13.8 points on 42.2 percent shooting, 3.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists in a bench role for the Heat this season. Walker (25.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists), Simmons (16.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 8.2 assists) and Oladipo (19.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.2 assists) are all putting up better numbers than Wade, but his selection as a starter would have more to do with celebrating the final season of a Hall of Fame career and less to do with statistics.
Recently, Kobe Bryant started the 2016 All-Star Game in his final season before retirement despite finishing that year with a shooting percentage of 35.8 percent. But Bryant’s selection came under the old system when All-Star starters were determined solely by fan vote.
Now, the opinions of the media and players will help decide Wade’s fate.
If Wade doesn’t get voted in as a starter, he could still make it as a reserve. The coaches determine the seven reserves from each conference.
Voting from fans, players and media will conclude Monday. All-Star starters will be announced Jan. 24 and the reserves Jan. 31.
The 2019 All-Star Game will take place at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Feb. 17. It will follow last year’s format: The two team captains will draft rosters from the pool of players voted as starters and reserves in each conference, making their picks regardless of conference affiliation. The All-Star Draft will be televised by TNT on Feb. 7 at 7 p.m.
The captains will be the All-Star starter from each conference who receives the most fan votes in his conference, which is currently Lakers forward LeBron James and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.
This story was originally published January 17, 2019 at 3:29 PM.
