Nets' Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving named All-Star starters

Two of the Nets’ Big 3, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, were named Eastern Conference All-Star starters on Thursday night.

James Harden, the third member of their superstar trio, narrowly missed a starting berth as the third-ranked vote-getter in the backcourt.

Said Nets coach Steve Nash: "Well-deserved. James as well. He’s been unbelievable. You saw that last night out in Phoenix. He’s been brilliant. But Kyrie and Kevin have been outstanding and were appreciated by the voters and well-deserved. So exciting times for Nets fans.’’

Durant won the fan vote in the Eastern Conference with 5,567,106 votes and will captain one team. The other team will be captained by the Lakers’ LeBron James, who was the overall leader with 5,922,554 votes in the Western Conference pool.

The two captains will draft their teams on March 4 ahead of the March 7 event at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

The other Eastern Conference starters are Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, 76ers center Joel Embiid and Wizards guard Bradley Beal.

The other four starters from the Western Conference are Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, Golden State guard Stephen Curry and Mavericks guard Luka Doncic.

The fan vote counted 50% and the player vote and media panel vote each counted 25%.

Durant ranked first in the Eastern frontcourt in the fan and player vote but only third in the media vote. Irving ranked second in the fan and player vote in the backcourt but fourth in the media vote.

Harden ranked third across the board.

Irving will be making an All-Star appearance for his third franchise as will Durant, who has been selected in each of his 11 seasons.

Durant has the second-highest scoring average in All-Star Game history (25.0).

By Greg Logan

Gregory.Logan@newsday.comGregLogan1

Greg Logan has worked for Newsday since 1982 covering a wide array of sports and events, currently including the Brooklyn Nets beat.