NBA All-Star fan voting is almost over, and players are making their final push. Yuki Kawamura decided to help his teammate Jaren Jackson Jr try to get into the All-Star Game. Will the Memphis forward make it?
Yuki Lands a Hand to Jaren Jackson’s All-Star Campaign
Jackson Jr. recently joined Kawamura for an NBA China livestream covering Lunar New Year. As a way to help Jackson’s All Star campaign, Kawamura sketched Ja Morant and talked about how his teammates should make the team. The Lunar New Year this year is on January 29. The Memphis Grizzlies play on January 27 in New York against the Knicks, and then on January 30 at home vs. Houston.
Speaking of Jackson’s chances for the All-Star Game, fan voting ends this Monday, January 20, at 11:59 pm ET. Monday will be the final 3-for-1 day when each vote by fans with NBA ID counts three times.
Can Jaren Jackson Make the All-Star Game?
Jackson Jr. has an almost impossible chance of making the All-Star team as a starter. In the third NBA All-Star voting results, Jackson had only 275K+ votes. Nikola Jokic with almost three million votes, LeBron James with 2.5 million, and Kevin Durant with almost 2.5 million lead the frontcourt players out West. Fan voting accounts only for 50% of the starter votes, with the remaining 50% split between players and a media panel. For Jackson Jr. to make the team as an All-Star, players and media have to vote for him a lot more than the fans.
Does Jaren Jackson Deserve to be an All-Star?
The competition for the frontcourt in the Western Conference is huge, and there will certainly be players who deserve it but do not make it. One of them might be Jackson Jr. The top-three vote-getters are essentially locked in with Jokic, LeBron, and Durant.
Then, coaches select three reserves for the frontcourt sports, and there are candidates like Alperen Senguin, Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Davis, Jalen Williams, and Domantas Sabonis who can make it. Three of them can make it as reserves for frontcourt. Coaches also select two backup guards, and have two wild card spots.
This year, the Grizzlies are at risk of possibly being a top-three team in the West without having an All-Star to represent them. Morant is seventh in guard voting. If neither Morant nor Jackson make it, it will be a rare case of a top-three team not having a player on the team.
Jackson is having a great season to be fair. He averages 22.6 points so far (career high), 6.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.7 blocks.
The Impact of Chinese Votes
For many years, Yao Ming led the league in votes thanks in large to his Chinese votes. Yes, Kawamura is Japanese, but they too celebrate the Lunar New Year. Bringing more attention to the team in Asia can certainly benefit the Grizzlies. Rockets players were getting millions of votes from China for years, until the infamous Daryl Morey incident.
To get a sense of how impactful China votes are, we can look back to the 2009-10 season. That year, Tracy McGrady played only 47 minutes, asked the Rockets to trade him, and had 650,000 votes, likely due in large part to votes in China. The season before, Nets forward Yi Jianlian almost made the team as a starter. The Rockets for many years were China’s adopted team due to Ming’s status in the most populated country in the world.
Yuki Getting it Done in the G League
Kawamura might not be getting much time in the NBA, but he is doing great for the Memphis Hustle in the G League. He recently had his third 20-point game as the team beat the Texas Legends, 129-123.
When Yuki gets to play in the NBA, fans cheer for him like he is one of the best players. Memphis Grizzlies constantly hear “We Want Yuki” in every arena in the league.
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