Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies has officially been named a starter in the 2022 NBA All-Star game thanks to a break-out season in year three of his young NBA career.
The Grizzlies are getting their first starter in an All-Star Game since Marc Gasol back in 2015 and second-ever player in franchise history to start in an ASG.
Let’s take a look at how Morant finished in the three voting categories that determine the NBA All-Star starters.
Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant was a unanimous pick to be an ASG starter
To determine the NBA All-Star starters, the NBA uses a formula that accounts for fan voting, nba player voting and media voting.
The fans account for 50% of the total vote, the players account for 25% and members of the media panel account for 25% of the vote. The NBA then turns those votes into a weighted score and the closer a player is to the number “1,” the better his score is in the voting.
The actual formula, according to the NBA is: Fan Rank * 2 + Player Rank + Media Rank)/4
Three voting groups determined the starters:
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 28, 2022
• Fans (50%)
• NBA players (25%)
• Media panel 25%)
Complete voting results here: https://t.co/h4VCEaRwVR
Below are the overall scores for the top finishers at each position. pic.twitter.com/W6An0FhzgY
Ja Morant cleaned up nicely in all three categories, finishing in second place in the fan voting, among players and among the media.
Morant finished with a total of 3,571,695 fan votes, placing him behind only Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets for the most votes among any player in the Western Conference.
The Murray State product received 116 votes from his NBA peers, trailing Stephen Curry by just 26 player votes for the top spot.
Fans should be pleased to know he recorded 67 media votes as well. It appears the NBA used a panel of 98 media members comprised of a mix between national media (i.e. Doris Burks, Zach Lowe, Bill Simmons, Ernie Johnson, etc.) and local media (Drew Hill of The Daily Memphian, Khobi Price, The Orlando Sentinel, etc.)
The entire Memphis community is elated that Ja Morant has been given the official NBA stamp of approval and is now an unquestionable superstar in the league.