Isaiah Thomas misses out on All-Star starter spot due to tiebreaker
Kyrie Irving and DeMar DeRozan are the two Eastern Conference guards that will start ahead of Thomas.
Isaiah Thomas is in the midst of one of the best individual offensive seasons in Boston Celtics history, but that torrid pace was not enough to earn him a backcourt starting spot for the Eastern Conference in the All-Star Game.
The 5-foot-9 point guard lost a tiebreaker to Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan in the revamped All-Star starter selection process, which combines voting from fans, media and players into a formula that determines the starting lineup for both conferences. DeRozan joins Kyrie Irving in the East’s starting backcourt, while LeBron James, Jimmy Butler, and Giannis Antetokounmpo were voted in as frontcourt starters.
Fan voting counted for 50 percent of the overall vote, while player (25 percent) and media (25 percent) voting accounted for the remaining tally.
Thomas and DeRozan tied the weighted vote for the second guard spot behind Irving with 2.75 points. The tiebreaker was fan voting however, and DeRozan finished third among guards at 796,112 votes, just ahead of Thomas in fourth with 755,102 votes.
To confirm, as was assumed: Isaiah Thomas and DeMar DeRozan did, in fact, tie in overall voting. pic.twitter.com/DqeoiNFh6A
— Marc D’Amico (@Marc_DAmico) January 20, 2017
Thomas is still likely to be selected as an All-Star reserve when those picks are announced in the coming weeks. The 27-year-old is averaging 28.7 points per game during the 2016-17 season, the fourth-best mark in the NBA. His 10.1 points per game average in the fourth quarter also tops the league.
Those impressive numbers resonated with the media and players, who voted Thomas first and second respectively among Eastern Conference guards. Those high finishes weren’t enough to overcome a fourth place finish in fan voting.
The NBA All-Star Game will take place on Feb. 19 in New Orleans.
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