<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Go ahead. Name 12 players in the Eastern Conference playing at a higher level than Cleveland's LeBron James. Not easy, is it? James sits a surprising fourth among East guards in All-Star voting, with a deficit of nearly 175,000 votes behind No. 2 Tracy McGrady in spite of the widespread belief than fans nationwide would make McGrady a starter in a landslide. If James can't make up that deficit over the next six weeks, he'll have to rely on East coaches to make it to February's All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles. Thing is, if he continues to play the way he did in a nationally televised victory Thursday night over Detroit and in Saturday's loss against Boston (in which he scored a career-high 37 points), James isn't a such a long shot in the coaches' vote. Chances are he already has Larry Brown's vote, since the Pistons' coach is a longstanding LBJ fan. When you comb through the East, only nine guys jump out as All-Star locks. At forward, it's Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal and Ron Artest and Toronto's Vince Carter. Detroit's Ben Wallace is the only sure-fire center. At guard, there are five players clearly ahead of James: Philadelphia's Allen Iverson, McGrady, New Jersey's Jason Kidd, New Orleans' Baron Davis and Boston's Paul Pierce. Yet from there it gets interesting. Atlanta's Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Milwaukee's Michael Redd and two Pistons guards -- Chauncey Billups or Rip Hamilton -- will all get votes. It will also be up to the coaches to put some size on this team to help out O'Neal and Wallace, which gives hope to New Jersey's Kenyon Martin, New Orleans' Jamaal Magliore, James' Cleveland teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas and maybe even New York's Kurt Thomas. That said ... James certainly belongs in the same paragraph with that second group. Especially if he can sustain the aggressiveness he regained against the Pistons after a string of lackluster performances. The strikes against him, of course, are his rookie status and the Cavaliers' 6-17 start. Barring a sooner-rather-than-later rise in the standings, some coaches will inevitably vote against a first-year player on one of the East's worst teams. "It would mean a lot if the coaches voted for me," James said. "I don't want to say it would mean more [than being voted in as a starter], because I love my fans so much, but it would definitely mean a lot."</div> By Marc Stein ESPN.com Full Story
