Devin Booker is viewed as one of the top NBA guards, but the fans don’t see him as an All-Star starter for the Western Conference.
The Phoenix Suns star guard isn’t even in the top 10 of the first fan return votes for next month’s NBA All-Star game in Indianapolis, despite averaging 26.7 points and career bests in shooting percentage from 3 at 38.3 and assists at 7.5.
“That’s ridiculous,” Suns forward Chimezie Metu said after Thursday’s practice. “We all know he’s going to be in the game. It doesn’t really matter at this point.”
The NBA will release the second fan return voting results Jan. 11. Friday’s voting will count three times for one vote.
Booker has had a history of finishing low in fan return votes.
He’s never been a All-Star starter, but Booker has fewer votes than Lakers guard Austin Reaves, who is averaging 10-plus fewer points than Booker at 15.3 and has only started in 10 of the 35 games he’s played this season.
“It’s the Lakers at the end of the day,” Metu said. “They get a little bias.”
Lakers superstar LeBron James leads all Western Conference players in voting with 2,008,645.
Suns superstar forward Kevin Durant is second behind James in West frontcourt voting at 1,807,394; Nuggets big Nikola Jokic is third at 1,636,041.
Durant is a 13-time All-Star.
The fans make up 50% of the vote for the All-Star starters, while NBA players and a media panel each have 25% of the vote. The starters will be announced Jan. 25 on TNT
Three frontcourt players and two backcourt players are chosen as starters.
The coaches determine the reserves. TNT will announce the reserves Feb. 1.
Suns coach Frank Vogel admitted he hasn’t even been paying attention to the All-Star fan voting, but said it’s “shocking” Booker, a three-time All-Star, isn’t in the top 10 of fan votes in West.
“A lot of times, those things are driven by bigger markets,” Vogel continued. “He’s the best in the game in my opinion.”
BetMGM.com posted an article last October that has Phoenix being the 6th largest NBA city with a population of 1,624,569.
New York (8,467,513), Toronto (6,255,000), Los Angeles (3,849,297), Chicago (2,696,555) and Houston (2,288,250) make up the top five.
However, Dallas (1,288,457), San Francisco (815,201), Oklahoma City (687,725), Memphis (628,127), Sacramento (525,041) and Minneapolis (425,336) have a smaller population than Phoenix, but has players from NBA teams in those cities with more votes than Booker for the West backcourt.
Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (1,452,733) is first in West backcourt voting followed by Warriors guard Stephen Curry (1,394,980) and OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (966,927) to make up the top three.
Mavs guard Kyrie Irving (388,170) is fifth, Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (289,744), Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (288,667) is seventh, Kings guard De’Aaron Fox (210,911) is eighth and Warriors guard Klay Thompson is ninth.
Clippers point guard James Harden is fourth with 431,951 fan votes.
