The Boston Celtics Jayson Tatum has emerged as a shining star from the talented 2017 NBA Draft - (Keith Allison photo)

Los Angeles Lakers Magic Johnson and Boston Celtics Larry Bird in Game two of the 1985 NBA Finals at Boston Garden Date 30 May 1985 - Steve Lipofsky www.Basketballphoto.com ALL TIME NBA 1st TEAM - BREAKING IT DOWN

Charles Barkley was a member of the 1992 USA Olympic Dream team BUT… he was never a member of an NBA title winning team ALL TIME NBA NEVER WON-NA TITLE TEAM

SPORTS NOTES EXTRA - 2017 DRAFT REPRESENT 2023 NBA ALL STAR CANDIDATES

James Loving/National Radio Text Service

Lonzo Ball was the rage in the 2017 NBA draft but he has had a checkered NBA career. The top talents of the draft that have had strong NBA careers include Jayson Tatum, De'Aron Fox and Donovan Mitchell. The interesting thing is how the fans rated their careers with their 2023 NBA All Star votes. Who were the top choices from the 2017 draft and who did the fans select with the most votes overall is noted in the chart at the bottom of this column - NBA's ALL TIME BEST PLAYERS TEAM

Monday January 23, 2923

2023 ALL STAR FAN VOTES

The votes are in showing how spot on the 2017 draft was with some exceptions being the best players voted were not the top selections.

Prior to the draft there was a circus type atmosphere of who was going to select and sign Lonzo Ball. The players that created the most buzz were Ball, De'Aron Fox and Markell Fultz. Teams were auditioning them with the Lakers drawing the most attention. The reason why, was Ball was a local talent who attended UCLA. The cream on top was he and his father LaVar were Lakers fans.

The loud and proud father LaVar was praising his sons Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo as being the answer to a team winning an NBA championship. The Lakers tried out Lonzo, Fultz and Fox. When all was said and done they selected Lonzo with their 2nd choice in the first round.

Surprisingly the Philadelphia 76ers selected Fultz with their overall number one pick. The sleeper in the draft was the 3rd choice by the Boston Celtics then GM Danny Ainge who selected Jayson Tatum.

Tatum was a sleeper since he wasn't one of the celebrated draft selections that received a lot of attention by trying out for NBA teams. The result being Ainge selected the diamond in the draft with Tatum.

Of the players available in the 2017 draft Tatum has had the most productive NBA career. He received the most votes from the 2017 draft picks for this years All Star game. Tatum received 4,521,414 votes ranking him third for the guard position for the Eastern Conference trailing Giannis Antetokounmpo 1st and Kevin Durant 2nd.

Fultz has had physical, mental and mechanical problems throughout his career. Ball has been effective when available but has had injuries throughout his career. Currently he is not listed on the Chicago Bulls roster as he recovers from an injury. Both Fultz and Ball have been traded from their original teams. Ball was traded twice, from the Lakers to the New Orleans Pelicans and the Pels to the Bulls. Fultz was traded once from the 76rs to the Orlando Magic.

Fox has been the second most productive behind Tatum's numbers. He received the 10th most votes for guards in the Western Conference voting with 382,173.

Donovan Mitchell selected 13th in the 2017 draft and Bam Odebayo 14th have been strong producers in their NBA careers. Mitchell moved on from the Denver Nuggets who drafted him to becoming a major force with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Mitchell received the 2nd most votes for the guard position for the Eastern All Star squad with 3,851,233 votes.

He trails Kyrie Irving's 3,968,041 votes. Odebayo has been improving throughout his career with the Miami Heat. This season he is coming into his own with his experience in the league but although he was previously an All Star selection was not selected in this seasons All Star fan voting.

Other players receiving votes from the 2017 draft include Laurie Markkanen who was selected 7th in the 2017 draft and finished 7th in the Western Conference frontcourt All Star voting.

Kyle Kuzma the 27th pick to the Lakers in the 2017 draft and 7th in the Eastern Conference frontcourt All Star voting. Proud papa LaVar Ball didn't strike out as his youngest son LaMelo finished 7th in this season's All Star voting with 607,544 votes.

Those selected to start in this seasons votes by the fans is noted in the final voting vote chart below.

THIS DAY IN THE NBA

January 23, 1959 In the NBA All-Star Game in Detroit, St. Louis’ Bob Pettit and Elgin Baylor of Minneapolis became the first co-winners of the MVP award as their West team won 124-108.

January 23, 1980 George Gervin of San Antonio scored 55 points in a 144-130 Spurs’ victory over the Pacers in Indianapolis.

January 23, 1992 Houston’s Otis Thorpe became the 10th player in NBA history to play in 500 consecutive games, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the Rockets’ 109-96 win over the Los Angeles Clippers at The Summit.

January 23, 1998 Denver tied the single-season record of 23 consecutive losses set by the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995-96. The streak halted with a 99-81 win the next day vs. the Los Angeles Clippers.

January 23, 1998 Michael Jordan scored in double figures for the 800th consecutive game in a 100-98 OT win over New Jersey. Jordan would add 40 more double-figure scoring games to his NBA record before retiring for the second time at the end of the 1997-98 season.

January 23, 2000 Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson becomes the sixth coach in NBA history to win 900 career games when the Mavericks defeat the Detroit Pistons 99-91 at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

NATIONAL RADIO PUBLISHED IN 5 LANGUAGES

National Radio text is published in five languages, Thai, French, Russian, Khmer (Cambodian language) and English, Any of our foreign language material and our Roman Wanderaugh columns is legally available ONLY on our National Radio site. Our sports, entertainment and feature programming has been broadcast on over 1000 radio stations