Yao Ming and Kobe Bryant led the Western Conference while Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James topped the Eastern Conference on Thursday after two rounds of voting for the 2006 NBA All-Star Game. Yao paced all players with 1,319,868 votes for the game in Houston on Feb. 19. Houston teammate Tracy McGrady topped the West forwards with 1,066,013 votes.
O’Neal, the Miami Heat center, was first in the East with 1,188,830 votes. LeBron James (1,150,920) and Jermaine O’Neal of Indiana (689,526) drew the most votes at forward in the conference. The front-running guards were Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson (1,144,250) and Miami’s Dwyane Wade (827,913).