On Thursday night, the Chicago Bulls didn’t see any players elected into the starting lineups at the NBA All-Star Game, but one of their biggest names came painfully close.
Out of a total of over 1.1 million votes cast, forward Pau Gasol missed out on a starting spot by just 360 votes, losing to New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony. Anthony ended up with just over 567,000 votes in the balloting, while Gasol had 566,988 votes.
Jimmy Butler also came close to getting into the game via the fan vote, but he too fell just short. Dwyane Wade and Kyle Lowry were selected as the starting guards for the Eastern Conference, while Butler finished in fourth place, nearly 80,000 votes behind Lowry.
Several other Bulls players appeared on the list released by the NBA Thursday, with Joakim Noah finishing in 13th place among forwards and Derrick Rose finishing in the seventh spot among guards.
The league will release its reserve players, as selected by the coaching staffs of the respective conferences, next week, and it’s widely expected that Butler will get into the game thanks to that vote. Gasol is also a potential candidate, but it’s unclear how many front court pieces the Eastern Conference team will bring with them into the game.
The NBA All-Star Game will take place on Feb. 14 in Toronto.
