January 12, 2017
The Sixers have been campaigning pretty hard for their rookie center to represent the Eastern Conference in the 2017 NBA All-Star Game. And it's working.
The league released the latest numbers for the fan vote, which will count towards 50% of a player's total, with the rest being split between current players and a panel of media members, and Joel Embiid is gaining on the competition.
The latest #NBAAllStar Voting presented by @Verizon returns!
— 2017 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 12, 2017
Vote: https://t.co/7SYpaqHa1f & the NBA App. pic.twitter.com/SXXAebaxx9
Once voting closes on Jan. 16 -- and the player/media votes are added in -- the top three frontcourt players and top two backcourt players will make up the starting five for each conference. Last week, Embiid was 29,000 votes behind Kevin Love.
Now, with just a few days left to vote, that number stands at just 16,000. And sure, the campaigning that's been done by the Sixers and their fans have gone a long way, but it's more about what Embiid's been able to do this season. Not only has he been playing at an all-star level on the court, but he's been winning plenty of votes off the court as well:
And that's just in the last six days, not including all the work he's put in on Twitter. Heck, it doesn't even include the story about how he's hoping to get a date with his 'famous' crush once he's named an all-star.
As for his on-the-court resume:
| PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | |
| PER GAME | 19.4 | 7.5 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 2.3 |
| PER 36 MIN | 27.8 | 10.8 | 2.9 | 1.0 | 3.3 |
You can vote by tweeting "Joel Embiid" [or any other player's first and last name] followed by "#NBAVOTE." You can also vote on NBA.com or by simply putting "NBA vote" into your Google search bar.
Follow Matt on Twitter: @matt_mullin
