Los Angeles Lakers forward Luka Dončić and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić lead the Western Conference after the first round of fan voting for the NBA All-Star Game, while Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is tops in the East, according to results released Monday.
The game, scheduled for Feb. 15 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, will take on a new format this season. There will be three teams of eight players. Two of the teams will be made up of U.S. players and one of international players. They will compete in a round-robin tournament of four 12-minute games to determine a winner.
Twenty-four players, 12 from each conference, will be selected. The top five players from each conference will be named starters, chosen by a weighted voting formula which counts fan voting for half and voting by current NBA players and a media panel for 25 percent each. The remaining seven players from each conference will be selected as reserves by NBA head coaches. Players are chosen regardless of position.
Should the results not naturally yield 16 American players and eight international players, NBA commissioner Adam Silver will select players to meet the requirement.
Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo lead their conferences in the first fan returns in NBA All-Star Voting 2026.
Fans (50% of the vote) join NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) in selecting five players in each conference honored as starters.
Next fan update: 1/6. pic.twitter.com/pHykl9yhTE
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 29, 2025
The World Team figures to be star-studded, as five of the top seven initial vote-getters in the West are international players, as is Antetokounmpo.
Fan voting concludes Feb. 14, though on select days votes count extra. The NBA has designated “three-for-one” days in which fan votes are worth three times as much. That was the case on Dec. 21 and 25, and will be on Dec. 30, Jan. 7, and Jan. 14.
While voting is far from closed and rosters far from finalized, the first fan returns offered several interesting results.
Tyrese Maxey is how high!?
In 2023–24, the Philadelphia 76ers guard won Most Improved Player after a breakout season in which he averaged 25.9 points per game, earning his first All-Star nod. While he has been respected as one of the game’s best young guards, his current position at No. 2 in Eastern Conference fan voting is a clear indicator he is beginning to receive attention alongside the league’s biggest superstars.
For good reason. The sixth-year guard out of Kentucky ranks third in the NBA in scoring, averaging 30.7 points per game, trailing only reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (32.0) and Dončić (32.7). Fans have obviously taken notice.
What’s Anthony Davis doing here?
Coming in at 13th in the West in the first returns, Davis, a Top 75 player in NBA history, has not led the Mavericks to much success early in his tenure in Dallas. He has appeared in just 16 of the team’s 33 games this season.
Davis is averaging his lowest scoring output since 2013 (20.5 points per game) while posting 1.6 blocks per night, tied for the lowest average of his career. Dallas, meanwhile, sits at 12–21 and 12th in the Western Conference. Limited availability, diminished production by his standards and a lack of team success make his presence in the voting returns a curious one.
Look at Michael Porter Jr.
For some players, moving from a role player on a contender to a focal point on a rebuilding team proves beneficial for individual recognition. Porter is a testament to that. The former Denver Nuggets sharpshooter has taken full advantage of his expanded role after being traded to the Brooklyn Nets, as he currently sits 10th in the initial fan voting returns.
After never previously averaging more than 20 points per game, Porter is posting a career-high 25.8 points per night in Brooklyn. He is also shooting 40.4 percent from 3-point range, his best since Denver’s championship season in 2022–23, when he served as the team’s primary long-range specialist. Although the Nets are 10–19 and 13th in the Eastern Conference, the increased freedom may be enough to land the seventh-year forward his first-ever All-Star appearance.
Deni Avdija has broken out
The Trail Blazers forward is seventh in the West in initial returns, ranking just ahead of revered names such as Kevin Durant and LeBron James. Portland (13-19) is also rebuilding, sitting just 10th in the West, but the sixth-year forward has had a career year.
Like Porter, Avdija has never averaged more than 20 points per game and is now pouring in 25.5 a contest after averaging 16.9 last season. He’s been an all-around force in the Pacific Northwest, also adding 6.8 assists and 7.1 rebounds a game.
Should Avdija, an Israeli native, make one of the World spots, it would be his first-ever All-Star appearance.
