Anthony voted in as All-Star Game starter

Carmelo Anthony's struggles this season haven't affected his popularity. The fans voted Anthony a starter in the Feb. 26 All-Star Game in Orlando. But Amar'e Stoudemire needs the coaches to put him on the team.

Anthony finished second behind Miami's LeBron James among Eastern Conference forwards with 1,041,290 votes. Stoudemire was a distant third, 657,556 votes behind his Knicks teammate.

Anthony will start for the third straight time and fourth overall. The fans selected him a Western Conference starter three times when he was with Denver and he was picked as a reserve once.

He entered Thursday night's game fifth in the league in scoring at 23.7 points, but he was shooting only 40 percent from the field. Because of his injuries, some will debate whether Anthony should rest that weekend. Mike D'Antoni said he should play.

"It's a great honor and they should accept like that and have a good time and play hard," D'Antoni said. "If you're lucky enough to get that, then it's not up to me to be up here saying too bad. I think it's great."

Joining Anthony and James as East starters are the Bulls' Derrick Rose, the Heat's Dwyane Wade and the Magic's Dwight Howard. The West starters are Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum of the Lakers, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin of the Clippers and the Thunder's Kevin Durant.

Last year, Stoudemire was the first Knick since Patrick Ewing in 1997 to start in the All-Star Game. He entered Thursday night's game averaging 17.6 points and shooting 43 percent. The coaches pick the reserves and they're announced Feb. 9. The Knicks haven't had two All-Stars in the same game since Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell made it in 2001.

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The Knicks are among the teams to show interest in Kenyon Martin, who started his season in China and is free to join an NBA team now. But the Knicks need backcourt help and likely will pursue J.R. Smith when he returns from China later this month. The Clippers, Heat and Hawks are considered frontrunners for Martin.