The NBA announced Thursday guard DeMar DeRozan has been voted a starter to the Eastern Conference team for the 2017 All-Star Game in New Orleans. DeRozan is the fourth Raptor to be voted a starter, joining Vince Carter (2000-04), Chris Bosh (2007-08) and Kyle Lowry (2015-16). Antonio Davis was named a starter as an injury replacement for the 2001 All-Star Game.
DeRozan will make his fifth appearance at NBA All-Star Weekend. He was named as a reserve for the All-Star Game in 2014 and 2016. He also participated in the Taco Bell Skills Challenge in 2014, the Sprite Slam Dunk in 2010 and 2011 and played in the 2011 T-Mobile Rookie Challenge.
DeRozan is averaging career highs in points (28.2), rebounds (5.4) and steals (1.24) through 42 games. He ranks second in the Eastern Conference and fifth in the NBA in scoring. DeRozan has scored 30-or-more points 20 times, including a season-high 41 points January 10 versus Boston. He became the first player to start a season with five consecutive 30-point games since Michael Jordan in 1986.
DeRozan has been selected as Eastern Conference Player of the Week three times this season (November 7-13, December 12-18 and January 9-15). He is the first player in team history to earn the honour three times in the same season.
A product of USC, DeRozan was selected ninth overall by the Raptors in the 2009 NBA Draft. He owns career averages of 18.9 points and 4.0 rebounds in 563 games. DeRozan recently became the franchise’s all-time leader for points (10,619) and games played.
The Eastern Conference and Western Conference starting lineups for the 66th NBA All-Star Game were revealed tonight on TNT, which will also unveil the All-Star reserves on Thursday, January 26 at 7 p.m. ET. The NBA All-Star Game is set for Sunday, February 19 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans and will be televised by TNT at 8 p.m. ET and broadcast by ESPN Radio.
Fans accounted for 50 per cent of the vote to determine the NBA All-Star Game starters, while current players and a media panel accounted for 25 per cent each. Fans cast more than 38 million votes during NBA All-Star Voting 2017 presented by Verizon, a 146% increase from the same time period last year.
After all votes were tallied, players were ranked in each conference by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups – fan votes, player votes and media votes. Each player’s score was calculated by averaging his weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes and the media votes. The five players (two guards and three frontcourt players) with the best score in each conference were named NBA All-Star Game starters.