“Listen, I was making a little coffee run this morning, got some gas and decided to just go on Instagram and peruse,” Bryant said, via ESPN.com, “and [I] saw the damn votes, and I was like, ‘What the hell?’ Shocked doesn’t do it justice.”
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“It’s exciting,” he said. “What can I say? Just thankful.”
Bryant, who has 719,235 votes, is far ahead of Golden State’s Stephen Curry (510,202) in the Western Conference and has nearly double the votes of Cavaliers star LeBron James (357,937) in the Eastern Conference.
This year marks the first time Bryant has been listed as a frontcourt player in All-Star voting. Previously, he had been listed as a guard.
“The All-Star Games are always tough because there’s always players that deserve to make it that don’t,” Bryant said. “[It happens] every year with the amount of talent that we have. That part of it. It’s tough, but getting the respect from the peers and other coaches around the league is awesome.”
Bryant is averaging 17.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 30.5 minutes per game this season.
The 2016 All-Star festivities will be from Feb. 12-14 in Toronto.
