The NBA announced Thursday that guard DeMar DeRozan was voted a starter for the 2018 NBA All-Star Game in his hometown of Los Angeles. This marks the fourth time DeRozan has been selected as an All-Star and the second straight year he has been voted-in as a starter. He finished second in fan, media and player voting among Eastern Conference guards for a weighted score of 2.0.
"Having the opportunity to play an NBA All-Star Game in my hometown is amazing, and being able to represent Toronto – my other home – makes it even better," DeRozan said. "It's a great honour to be selected as a starter again, and I want to thank my teammates and coaches, the fans across Canada, the media, and the entire NBA community. I appreciate your votes."
DeRozan, a native of Compton, was selected ninth overall by Toronto in the 2009 NBA Draft following one season at USC. He is the franchise's all-time leader in career points (12,538), field goals made (4,451), free throws made (3,352) and games played (638). DeRozan has also contributed to 326 regular-season and 17 playoff victories, which is the most by any player in franchise history.
DeRozan is averaging a team-high 25.2 points (third among East guards), a career-high 5.0 assists and is shooting a career-best .345 (48-for-139) from three-point range. He has led (or tied) the Raptors in scoring during 26 of the team's 30 victories this season. Highlighting DeRozan's 2017-18 campaign was a franchise-record 52- point performance Jan. 1 vs. Milwaukee – the most points scored on New Year's Day in NBA history. DeRozan has been named Eastern Conference Player of the Week three times – Jan. 1-7, Dec. 18-24 and Nov. 13-18.
Toronto has had at least one NBA All-Star in five consecutive seasons. DeRozan now ranks third in team history behind Vince Carter (5) and Chris Bosh (5) for most All-Star selections. The starters for the 67th NBA All-Star game were announced on TNT. The network will unveil the reserves, as selected by NBA head coaches on Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. (ET). The team rosters will be revealed Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. (ET).
Fans accounted for 50 percent of the vote to determine the NBA All-Star Game starters, while current players and a media panel accounted for 25 percent each. LeBron James (2,638,294 fan votes) edged Giannis Antetokounmpo (2,530,211) as the top overall vote-getter among fans, while Stephen Curry (2,379,494) led the West. Kevin Durant (2,238,406) and Kyrie Irving (2,170,833) also had the highest fan totals in their respective position groups.
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 two guards and three frontcourt players with the best score in each conference were named NBA All-Star Game starters. Fan voting served as the tiebreaker for players in a position group with the same score. This year, the tiebreaker was not needed to determine a starting spot.