Your 2016 NBA All-Star Voting Primer

For the first time since Michael Redd’s illustrious performance in 2004, the Milwaukee Bucks have a legit chance at getting a player into the NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans. Voting just opened on Christmas day, and will run through January 16th at 11:59pm ET. If you’re interested in getting Giannis, Jabari, or maybe starting a grassroots effort to somehow get Thon into the game, here are some basic voting guidelines on how to make it happen:

• Fans can create a full ballot on the NBA’s fan vote page once every 24 hours. You’re allowed to select two guards and three frontcourt players each time. The “frontcourt” definition allows far more leniency than the stringent “center” designation required for All-NBA teams. You can also fill out full ballots using the NBA App or just typing in “NBA Vote All-Star” or “NBA Vote [Insert Team Name]” on Google and they’ve created some confounded card voting thing directly on their page because they’re Google.
• You can also vote for individual players using Twitter or Facebook. Both of them only allow votes for 10 different players each day.
• On Facebook, post the player’s first and last name with #NBAVOTE on the end. Every post can only include one player’s name. It can either be on your personal account so you can annoy people on your timeline, or just commenting on another person’s Facebook post, so you can annoy their notification section.
• Twitter is counting tweets, retweets or replies that include one player’s first and last name (or handle) with the hashtag, #NBAVOTE.
• The same rules apply on social media as with the other balloting areas, you’re only allowed to post once per day, or every 24 hours.
• The Bucks also have a handy All-Star site set up to help you vote on whatever platform you desire.

One early sticking point has been the potential misspelling of Giannis’ last name, as the NBA won’t count misspelled players. The obvious answer is just to keep Giannis Antetokounmpo permanently copied on your clipboard during this period, but also remember you can just use his handle on Twitter to simplify the process.

Fans only account for 50 percent of the vote this year, with players and a panel of media accounting for 25 percent each respectively. Starters should be announced on Friday January 20th during a TNT liveshow, with the reserves, selected by the head coaches, announced a week later.

The actual game will be played on February 19th. Also, the far more important Celebrity All-Star Game will be played that Friday, February 17th. No word yet on when fan voting will be opened up for that so we can finally get the eternally obnoxious Kevin Hart off the court and Arnie Duncan’s Ben Simmons-like vision back on there.