Michael Jordan, the leading vote-getter in the history of the NBA All-Star game, on Sunday became the first player to receive more than 2 million votes in one season.
In final fan voting for the Feb. 9 game at Cleveland, the Chicago Bulls guard led all players in votes for a record eighth time with 2,451,136.Joining Jordan in the Eastern Conference starting lineup will be forwards Grant Hill of Detroit (1,868,020 votes) and Scottie Pippen of Chicago (1,683,956), center Patrick Ewing of New York (1,395,759) and guard Penny Hardaway of Orlando (1,132,024).
For the Western Conference, the starters will be forwards Charles Barkley of Houston (1,877,232) and Shawn Kemp of Seattle (1,713,049), center Hakeem Olajuwon of Houston (1,487,310) and guards Gary Payton of Seattle (1,206,539) and John Stockton of Utah (1,127,250).
The rest of the 12-man teams will be selected by all the coaches in the respective conferences and announced this week. Houston's Rudy Tomjanovich will coach the West and Doug Collins of Detroit will coach the East.
Stockton finished 200,819 votes ahead of Clyde Drexler for the second guard spot and will be making his ninth All-Star Game appearance.
Utah's Karl Malone, who along with Stockton was named co-MVP for the 1993 All-Star Game, finished third in the Western Conference voting for forwards with 1,337,319 votes, about 375,000 behind Kemp. Malone has been selected for nine straight all-star games and is expected to be picked by the coaches for his 10th.
Jordan, the MVP of last year's 129-118 East victory at San Antonio and the MVP in the 1988 game, will be playing in his 11th All-Star game.
During his career, he has received 12,009,832 votes. He also led the voting for seven consecutive seasons (1987-1993), before Barkley ended his streak in 1994. Hill was the top vote-getter in 1995 and 1996.
This will be the 12th All-Star appearance for Olajuwon, the 11th each for Ewing and Barkley, the ninth for Stockton, the seventh for Pippen, the fifth for Kemp, the fourth for Payton and the third each for Hill and Hardaway.
Olajuwon is second to Jordan in career All-Star votes with 8,945,262 and former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson is third with 8,216,466.
Pippen was the MVP in the 1994 game and Barkley in 1991.
Ewing was delighted at being picked as a starter.
"It feels good," he said. "I'm very happy and looking forward to going. It means a lot. I'm usually picked by the coaches, but now I'm back in the starting lineup."
The East leads the series 29-17. The only other time the game was played at Cleveland was in 1981, with the East winning 123-120.
A record 8,879,330 votes were cast in this year's McDonald's All-Star balloting program, surpassing the mark of 6,446,259 set last year. In addition, a record 13 players each received more than 1 million votes.