On January 20, in the wee small hours of the morning, Georgia Time, NBA All Star participants were finally announced by TNT. Unfortunately, what most Georgians had dreamed of was not meant to become reality. That means Zaza Pachulia will not be part of starting line-up.

As you may know, this year NBA changed its rules and the supporters’ votes are no longer enough to qualify. In fact, the fan’s votes only matters by 50%. The remaining 50 is divided into two and given to the media and the players themselves.

With 1 528 941 votes, Zaza Pachulia took the second place among the Western Conference frontcourt participants, but the media and other players did not support the Georgian big man, which means he won’t be in the starting line-up.

The players placed Zaza on 12th place and as for the media, they gave him the 10th spot. Eventually, with 6.5 points, Zaza took sixth place in the Western Conference.

As for the starting line-ups, they look like this:

Eastern Conference
Kyrie Irving, DeMar DeRozan, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Butler III

Western Conference
James Harden, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis

The remaining 14 players will be named by the respective coaches on January 26, which means there is still a possibility for us to see Zaza in the All-Star game. The coach of the Western Conference’s team will be Steve Kerry who is also the coach of Golden State Warriors.

The 2017 All Star Game will be held in New Orleans, on February 19.

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That’s Zaza! – Pachulia’s best moments with Golden State Warriors

NBA All-Star Game voting update: Pachulia still near the top