‘Much love to all the fans’: Celtics’ Jayson Tatum thanks voters for helping select him to 2024 NBA All-Star team
“I appreciate y’all more than you know.”
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Jayson Tatum is playing elite basketball this season. NBA All-Star voters — fans, players, and media alike — recognize it.
The 25-year-old Celtics star was named a 2024 NBA All-Star starter for the Eastern Conference team Thursday. Fifty percent of voters who decide the All-Star starters are fans, while media (25 percent) and fellow players (25 percent) comprise the rest.
Tatum received 4,802,187 fan votes, 100 media votes, and 196 player votes. Those numbers earned him a spot in the All-Star starting lineup alongside the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, the 76ers’ Joel Embiid, and the Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton.
Tatum took to social media to thank his fans for helping select him to his fifth-straight All-Star game.
“5X all star, use to dream of moments like this,” he wrote on X Friday. “Much love to all the fans, I appreciate y’all more than you know.”
Tatum followed up with another post on X, writing “Fan love 🤞🏽🙏🏽” in response to the number of fan votes he received. He garnered the third-most fan votes across both conferences, behind only Antetokounmpo and the Lakers’ LeBron James.
The seven-year veteran also spoke with Andscape’s Marc Spears about what being an All-Star means and reiterated how thankful he is for the fans who cast votes for him.
“I don’t overlook it, man,” Tatum said. “For millions of people to go and vote and have almost 4 million votes almost seems unreal to me. There are so many guys in the league. There are so many people you can vote for and for you to vote for me. I never take that for granted.”
Tatum is hoping some of his teammates will join him as All-Star reserves next month. He thinks three of them — Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, and Derrick White — “have a strong case.”
Brown indeed seems to be a good candidate; he collected the fifth-most fan votes among Eastern Conference frontcourt players (1,320,277) and 37 votes from fellow players.
Porzingis garnered the seventh-most fan votes among Eastern Conference guards (778,015) plus 26 player votes. White also received a lot of love with the help of 707,845 fan votes (seventh-most among East guards) and 28 votes from players.
NBA coaches will pick the reserves, which will be announced on Feb. 1.
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