Antetokounmpo, Jokic and James among early NBA All-Star leading vote-getters

Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo is the early leader in fan balloting for the NBA All-Star Game, and LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers seems well on his way toward extending his record and getting picked for a 21st time.

The first update on All-Star voting for this season's revised game was released Thursday, with Antetokounmpo the overall leader with about 1.7 million votes. Denver's Nikola Jokic is second overall with about 1.4 million votes, which is tops among all Western Conference players.

The 10 players on pace to be selected as starters, at least based on the fan balloting: Antetokounmpo, Boston's Jayson Tatum, New York's Karl-Anthony Towns, Charlotte's LaMelo Ball and Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell from the Eastern Conference, and Jokic, Phoenix's Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Dallas' Luka Doncic and James from the West.

But there won't be 10 starters this year for the All-Star Game, set to take place Feb. 16 in San Francisco. There will be more.

It's the first year of a new All-Star format, one where there will be three games. The 24 All-Stars will be drafted into three teams of eight players apiece by TNT personalities and former NBA greats Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.

Those three teams will be entered into a four-team tournament, with the remaining squad being the team of NBA rookies and second-year players that wins the Rising Stars event on All-Star Friday. There are two semifinal games, followed by the winners meeting in a championship game — with the first team to reach 40 points the winner of all three games.

It will be wildly different than last year, when the All-Star Game final score was 211-186 — the highest-scoring one in history.

Voting continues through Jan. 20.

Fan voting makes up 50% of the All-Star starter selection formula, with media voting accounting for another 25% and voting by current NBA players counting for the remaining 25%.

The 10 players designated as starters — even though there technically will be at least 15 starters in the All-Star “games” — will be announced on Jan. 23, and the reserves that will be selected by NBA head coaches will be announced on Jan. 30.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James celebrates after scoring during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic argues after being called for a foul by referee Jenna Schroeder in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, right, goes around Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam (43) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

MADRID (AP) — Barcelona's request to register Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor for the rest of the season was denied again by the Spanish league and federation on Saturday.

The players were registered only through the end of 2024 and Barcelona failed to meet the league’s financial fair-play rules by the end-of-year deadline.

The league and the federation said in a joint statement that even though Barcelona eventually was able to meet the salary-cap rules, the players can't be registered again after already having been dropped because of the missed deadline.

Coach Hansi Flick said before the 4-0 win over fourth-division club Barbastro in the Copa del Rey that he spoke with Olmo and the player reiterated his desire to keep playing for Barcelona.

“Dani wants to play for Barça,” Flick said. “We need him, and also Pau Víctor, they are very good players, we need both of them. We need to wait. This is the only thing we can do right now.”

Barcelona was expected to resort to the courts again, though its previous attempts were all rejected.

Barcelona argued that the deadline for registering new players should be at the end of January, when the transfer windows closes, and not the end of December as the league requires.

Barcelona was able to finally increase its salary cap after reportedly receiving a payment on Friday of 100 million euros ($103 million) for VIP seats at the renovated Camp Nou stadium.

Each La Liga club has a salary cap that is calculated based on factors including revenues, costs and debts. It is proportional to roughly 70% of a club’s revenues.

Barcelona has endured difficulties registering players recently because of its financial struggles. It has resorted to financial levers in recent years, including the sale of future television rights. The club’s financial struggles led to the departure of Lionel Messi in 2021.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Barcelona's Dani Olmo, controls the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)