Minnesota Timberwolves’ rookie point guard Ricky Rubio is currently third amongst Western Conference guards in the newly released all-star fan vote.
Through 14 games, Rubio is averaging 10.7 points, 8.3 assists, and 4.6 rebounds per game for the 6-8 Wolves.
Rubio is miles behind Laker’s guard Kobe Bryant and Clipper’s guard Chris Paul in the guard vote, but the fact that he’s ahead of other big name guards in the Western Conference shows the immense respect that fans have for Rubio.
Traditionally, International players receive an inflation in their votes due to their immense support in their home countries. But there’s no doubt that fans in the United States are also showing their support for the Spanish rookie.
Here are the current vote numbers for Western Conference guards:
Kobe Bryant (LAL) 1,110,379
Chris Paul (LAC) 835,026
Ricky Rubio (Min) 248,423
Steve Nash (Pho) 188,537
Russell Westbrook (OKC) 167,996
Kyle Lowry (Hou) 132,972
Monta Ellis (GS) 105,926
Forward Kevin Love, who should be receiving a maximum contract offer from the Timberwolves any day soon, is currently fifth among Western Conference forwards.
Love his 4th in the NBA in scoring averaging 25.2 points per night. He is also 2nd in the league in rebounding averaging 14.5 rebounds per game.
Here is how the forward vote shakes out to date:
Kevin Durant (OKC) 973,152
Blake Griffin (LAC) 619,913
Dirk Nowitzki (Dal) 354,434
Pau Gasol (LAL) 327,596
Kevin Love (Min) 232,656
LaMarcus Aldridge (Por) 188,829
Tim Duncan (SA) 133,575
It apperas that neither Love nor Rubio will be voted into the 2012 All-Star game. But Love will certainly be picked as a reserve for the team. Whereas Rubio will be spending his All-Star weekend playing in the Rookie-Sophomore game.
The game is held on February 26th in Orlando.
Information used in this article was taken from InsideHoops.
-Brett Cloutier
Brett is a contributor to The Sports Bank. He covers all things Minnesota sports. He is the co-host of ‘The Backdoor Cut’ on KFAN.com. You can follow him on Twitter @brettcloutier.