Early returns on voting for the 2012 NBA All-Star Game are in, and the Denver Nuggets have Nene and Danilo Gallinari withing striking range for bids to represent the Western Conference. Nene currently ranks fourth among centers in the conference with 93,167 votes, behind Andrew Bynum (496,597), DeAndre Jordan (134,961) and Marc Gasol (102,116). Meanwhile Gallinari is the 10th-place forward with 34,438 votes, and strangely trails LA Lakers' forward Metta World Peace (39,006).
The leaders in the Western Conference shouldn't really surprise anyone: Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin lead voting for forwards with 633,538 and 394,264 votes, respectively, while Kobe Bryant paces the guards with 690,613 votes.
The 2012 NBA All-Star Game will air live at 6 p.m. MT on TNT and will take place at the Amway Center in Orlando on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012. Fans can vote on NBA.com or up to 10 times per day via text message by texting the player's last name to 6-9-6-2-2 ("MYNBA") in the U.S. Voting closes on January 31st, 2012, and the honors will be announced on February 2nd during a one-hour special on TNT prior to a double-header featuring the Denver Nuggets and LA Clippers in the late game (8:30 p.m. MT).
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