Now that the player votes for this year's NBA All-Star Game have been officially tallied, the usual suspects for the Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in the top two spots for votes. LeBron James, who's set to start for a record-breaking 17th straight time this coming March 7, got the most player votes with a total of 214 while Anthony Davis came in second with 120.
Coming in at third on the Lakers is two-way forward Kostas Antetokounmpo. Yup, it's Giannis' baby brother.
Kostas, who's also signed with the Lakers' G-League affiliate the South Bay Lakers, has only played a total of eight minutes this season.
He received more player votes than minutes played after he tallied 10 in total making him the third member of the Lakers who garnered the most player votes. If we take out all the other Antetokounmpos in the NBA today, Kostas still mysteriously got seven random votes from his peers.
Behind the 23-year-old, it was Marc Gasol (4), Montrezl Harrell (3) while Dennis Schroder, Kyle Kuzma, and a bunch of other Lakers stars all got one vote.
So how and why did this happen? Lakers site Silver Screen and Roll had the perfect theories in place. According to Harrison Faigen, it's either Kosas is far more well-liked compared to his older brothers Giannis and Thanasis or maybe some players didn't even take time to read the names well and mistakenly voted for Kostas.
Or is it possible that other players are seeing an up-and-coming superstar in the younger Antetokounmpo? Unlikely. But if I'm Kostas, I'll take those 10 votes and put them beside my NBA championship ring with the Lakers.
There have been many improbable sports stories to read and absorb during the pandemic, many of them pertaining to the results of games or coaching searches or trades. It's fascinating to contemplate the idea that the craziest story from pandemic-period sports could relate not to a game or trade or coaching hire, but to an NBA All-Star vote involving the Lakers.
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