The last time Kobe Bryant didn’t start in an All-Star game, “Friends” was only halfway through its 10-year run, the Florida Marlins beat the New York Yankees in the World Series and Tupac Shakur had been dead for a year.
Behind more than 2.8 million votes, Bryant will join Tim Duncan, Amar’e Stoudemire, Yao Ming and Chris Paul as a Western Conference starter in his personal 11th-straight start. The MVP of the All-Star game in 2002 and 2007 was also the youngest All-Star in NBA history in 1998.
Leading the Eastern Conference will be leading vote getter Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Dwyane Wade and Allen Iverson.
Bryant finished third among all players behind Howard (3.1+ million) and James (2.9+ million).
