LeBron James’ 21-year All-Star streak in jeopardy? NBA analyst weighs in after first fan votes revealed

The NBA released its first round of All-Star voting results on Tuesday for the February showcase at the Intuit Dome, which is the Los Angeles Clippers’ new home arena. Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo are pacing the Western and Eastern Conferences respectively, while several other names on the list have sparked plenty of discussion.

One of the biggest surprises is LeBron James’ position. After years of comfortably dominating fan voting, James currently ranks ninth among Western Conference players and 15th overall, with 536,555 total votes.

NBA announces first round of fan voting results for 2026 All-Star game

To be fair, this dip is not too shocking. In his 23rd NBA season, LeBron missed a season opener for the first time in his career and has already sat out 16 games.

"The big takeaway from these initial All-Star voting returns? It seems unlikely, barring a big sea change in voting, that LeBron will be a starter for the first time since 2005 — and that makes it uncertain he's going to be one at all this year," NBA expert Tim Bontemps wrote on X.

It's evident that the 41-year-old is experiencing a modest decline, which is hardly unexpected at this stage of his career. His statistical output is no longer on par with recent seasons. Even so, James continues to be a productive contributor on a team battling near the top of the Western Conference standings. However, experts have weighed in and suggested that it might still fall short of being enough to secure him a spot among the top vote-getters.

LeBron James has been selected to a record 21 All-Star Games and remains the event’s all-time leading scorer. The only season he failed to make the roster was his rookie year, though many still argue he had an All-Star–caliber case even then based on his regular-season production.

This year’s revamped All-Star format will include two Team USA squads, featuring a combined 16 players, along with one Team World team made up of eight players. If the initial selections do not produce enough international players to fill Team World, NBA commissioner Adam Silver will step in to make additional picks, and the same adjustment would apply in the opposite scenario to balance the rosters.

Based on the latest voting results released yesterday, 10 international players currently rank among the top 24 in total votes. That situation would require Silver to exclude two of them to meet the roster structure, with the added wrinkle that Karl-Anthony Towns could be counted as a Team USA player due to his dual citizenship.

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