LeBron James has put himself in the debate to be considered the greatest NBA player of all time, having collected 4 NBA championships and led his teams to the NBA finals on 10 different occasions. The King is arguably the best player of his generation, dominating the league since he entered as the first overall draft pick in 2003. This has understandably made James one of the most popular athletes in the world.
This usually becomes apparent when All-Star voting comes around, with LeBron being named an All-Star 18 consecutive times since his first selection in 2005. James has consistently dominated the fan voting aspect of the All-Star selection process, getting the highest number of votes for the last 6 seasons running. In fact, in 2022, he had his highest tally yet with 9,128,231 fan votes.
Final fan vote totals ⬇️ https://t.co/MmFnrrkSVM pic.twitter.com/nRO2aw6QCL
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 28, 2022
LeBron got over 1 million votes more than the closest player in second, which happens to be Steph Curry. His voting tallies have consistently been the highest in recent years, and with social media becoming more influential, tallies have gone up almost every year.
LeBron’s votes since 2017:
- 2017: 1,893,751
- 2018: 2,638,294
- 2019: 4,620,809
- 2020: 6,275,459
- 2021: 5,922,554
- 2022: 9,128,231
This year marks the 9th time overall that James has led the NBA in All-Star votes from fans, tying Michael Jordan who held the record for that. LeBron’s quest to be the greatest of all time has been greatly aided by his longevity, the fact that he is leading the league in these votes during his 30s is a truly impressive achievement.
The fan vote has become incredibly controversial in recent times, especially this year, with the high votes for players like Klay Thompson and Jayson Tatum raising some eyebrows. Andre Wiggins becoming an All-Star starter is also something that has been widely criticized by fans and some media members. While fan voting can admittedly skew some results, the voice of fans is an important one in rewarding the NBA’s best and it’s unlikely that the rule will change anytime soon.
Credit for the idea: uncoverednba/Instagram.
