Gasol Casts All-Star Votes for Himself

By BRETT POLLAKOFF

Updated 2:49 PM PST, Tue, Jan 6, 2009

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Even with the Lakers having the best record in the league, the team is going to have a tough time getting any of their players besides Kobe Bryant into the starting lineup for the Western Conference All-Star team. That's because the starters are voted on by the fans, and that means that they can put anyone they want on their ballot, whether there are more deserving candidates out there or not. But that hasn't stopped Pau Gasol from casting a few votes for himself, in hopes of making it to the big game in Phoenix on February 15th.

“Once or twice, just to give me a couple of extra votes,” Gasol said, smiling.

Unfortunately for Gasol, one or two votes aren't going to cut it. He's currently sixth among Western Conference forwards, and trails the leading vote-getter (Tim Duncan) by over 600,000 votes.

The voting thing only applies to the players that will start the game however, so Gasol still has a shot to be selected, and a good one at that. The reserves are chosen by the head coaches in each conference, and when you look at the numbers, Gasol should be a lock.

Tim Duncan and Amare Stoudemire are currently in line to start, and the rest of the players ahead of Gasol in the voting are Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, and Ron Artest. Anthony's going to be out for the next three weeks with a broken hand, and Artest's numbers don't stack up to Gasol's 17 points and almost nine rebounds a game.

Unless something really crazy happens over the next couple of weeks, Nowitzki and Gasol are pretty much guaranteed to be your Western Conference All-Star reserves at the forward spot. So stuffing the ballot box, at this point, really isn't necessary.