Atlanta Hawks fans have their work cut out for them if they want to see a Hawk in the starting lineup for the All-Star Game in Los Angeles. The league released the first round of voting for the game on Thursday and there was not a Hawk to be found near the top of the leaderboard.
Forward Josh Smith has the most votes of any Atlanta player with 104,713 tallies, but he is sixth amongst all forwards and 500,000 votes behind leading vote getter LeBron James of the Miami Heat. The Boston Celtics' Kevin Garnett is second with 456,111 votes followed by the New York Knicks' Amare Stoudemire (327,626), the Celtics' Paul Pierce (235,107) and Heat's Chris Bosh (161,801).
Joe Johnson (46,811) and Jamal Crawford (31,524) are getting decimated at guard where they are ninth and 10th behind Dwyane Wade of the Heat (570,489) and Rajon Rondo of the Celtics (487,141).
The Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard leads all centers with 611,561 votes, more than double the lead of Boston's Shaquille O'Neal. Horford is an embarrassing fifth with just 49,098 votes. Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls (97,163) and Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors (53,275) are ahead of Atlanta's sensational center.
The good news is that there is plenty of time for your favorite Hawks to narrow the gap. Paper balloting concludes on Jan. 17 while online and mobile voting finishes on Jan. 23.