Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Rajon Rondo are your current NBA All-Star vote leaders as of December 30, 2010.

Welcome to the NBA All-Star voting elite, Rondo.

If you can’t remember who is on the NBA All-Star ballot please CLICK HERE for a refresher.

While I am a pretty hardcore Celtics fan I still wouldn’t put Rondo in the starting lineup over Derrick Rose at the moment. Rose currently ranks #2 in my MVP Power Rankings and there is still time for him to make a push - he’s only 50,000 or so votes behind Rondo right now.

It looks as if perpetually-injured Rockets center Yao Ming will “start” in this year’s game despite playing in only five contests. He’s nearly 300,000 votes ahead of Andrew Bynum, another injury-plagued big man, followed by Brendan Haywood and Nene Hilario.

Where is Tyson Chandler? Oh yeah! The anchor of the Mavs’ revamped defense isn’t even listed on the original ballot. Thank goodness coaches have a say in bench voting.

Dirk Nowitzki, my NBA MVP choice thus far, is just fourth in votes while Spurs mainstay Tim Duncan ranks right behind despite a less-than-spectacular season by his standards. Duncan is averaging under thirty minutes per game this year and while I’d love to see him voted in he’s really not the best forward in the West right now.

Kevin Garnett and Amare Stoudemire almost deserve co-starts right now and I’m inclined to say Amare deserves the start this season based on the Knicks’ turnaround. That’s not to say Garnett isn’t deserving but that Stoudemire has been absolutely dominant and was leading my MVP rankings earlier last month.

If Garnett does start I won’t complain, however. He’s been a beast this season and equally deserving.

I also, and I know this is unfathomable to suggest, feel that Kobe Bryant shouldn’t be a starter this year and Manu Ginobili should. I know we’re talking about Kobe Bryant here but an All-Star start should be about the current season and not past glory. If you’re voting by those standards I feel Manu should get the starting nod.

I’m not saying that Kobe isn’t one of the best players in the game right now, just that if you’re going by the first half of the season Manu deserves some love.

Unfortunately Ginobili doesn’t have a chance at catching Bryant - he’s currently more than 700,000 votes behind.

I want to make it clear that I won’t be upset that Kobe will earn the start (far from it) as he’s still the greatest offensive force in the game today and when his mind is right, playing within the offense and not shooting his team out of games few on the planet are better.

Here are your NBA All-Star starters as of 12/30/2010, courtesy of USA TODAY:

(NOTE: In parenthesis next to each player I put in who I think should be starting if different than the current fan choices in bold. Fire away!)** **

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EASTERN CONFERENCE

C - Dwight Howard, Magic (988,572)

F - Kevin Garnett, Celtics (712,555)           (Amare Stoudemire, Knicks)

F - LeBron James, Heat (969,459)

G - Dwyane Wade, Heat (938,402)

G - Rajon Rondo, Celtics (777,310)            (Derrick Rose, Bulls)

WESTERN CONFERENCE

C - Yao Ming, Rockets (637,527)               (Tyson Chandler, Mavericks)

F - Kevin Durant, Thunder (735,521)

F - Carmelo Anthony, Nuggets (602,516)    (Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks)

G - Kobe Bryant, Lakers (1,153,694)          (Manu Ginobili, Spurs)

G - Chris Paul, Hornets (585,690)              (Deron Williams, Jazz)

What are your thoughts? Who would your starting five in each conference be?

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