Last push for Clarkson vote

The voting for the starters in this year's NBA All-Star Game will end on Tuesday at 12:59 p.m. and backers of Fil-Am Jordan Clarkson are calling on Filipinos all over the world for a last push to make an impact for the Los Angeles Lakers guard in the polls.

 

In the latest count, Clarkson was absent from the top 10 vote-getters for the two backcourt starting spots on the West team that will play the East in the annual extravaganza at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on February 19. Golden State’s Steph Curry led the voting with 990,390 ballots followed by Houston’s James Harden with 961,185, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook with 899,024, Golden State’s Klay Thompson with 555,430, Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Paul with 379,076, Portland’s Damian Lillard with 208,171, Houston’s Eric Gordon with 191,407, Golden State’s Andre Igoudala with 130,224, San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili with 122,333 and Minnesota’s Zach Levine with 94,867.

 

A source from a Filipino fan site said yesterday Clarkson’s votes are expected to increase exponentially in the last three days of the polls. “Since we launched the ‘One Star, One Goal, One Nation’ campaign for Jordan last Monday, we’ve been averaging 25,000 posts a day,” the source said. “Total reach is approaching one million with 183,975 posts to date, a volume that the NBA will be seeing as the count progresses.”

 

After the NBA released a vote update last Thursday, Clarkson overtook Igoudala, Ginobili and Levine to break into the top 10. “There is a significant increase from Jan. 9 when we launched the Filipino fan campaign and Jordan’s mentions are much higher than the bottom three players,” the source said. “On Jan. 12, Jordan had 53,020 posts while Ginobili had 10,078, Lavine 781 and Igoudala 731. Jordan’s volume shows a spiked upward trend.”

 

While the campaign to vote for Clarkson started late, it has gained momentum and was noticed by writer Christian Angelo Jacinto in the Sports Illustrated website. “The Philippines, being the basketball-crazy country that it is, might just pull off the unthinkable,” wrote Jacinto in assessing Clarkson’s poll chances.

 

On his Twitter account @JClark5on, the Fil-Am released a 24-second video saying, “Thank you for all your votes, I’m so humbled, please keep tweeting and hash-tagging #NBAVOTE Jordan Clarkson, salamat, salamat po, mahal ko kayo.” He also said, “Appreciate all the Jordan Clarkson #NBAVOTE support from Filipino fans and Minxy (the ‘Filipino’ French bulldog featured in the video) around the world!”

 

 It’s not too late to boost Clarkson to the top of the polls but the push has to come now. “We’ll need to rocket blast the campaign to the stratosphere,” a Clarkson fan said. “If every Filipino basketball fan votes for Jordan, there’s no way he won’t be in the top two.”

 

Clarkson’s mother Annette was born in Balibago and moved to Texas with her mother Marcelina Tullao when she was five. His father Mike and mother were married when they were in the US Air Force Reserve. They were later divorced. Clarkson has always been proud of his Filipino roots. When he was an 11-year-old student at Meztger Middle School in San Antonio, Clarkson wore a Barong Tagalog on Heritage Night and posed for pictures with the Philippine exhibit in the background. Clarkson has visited the Philippines thrice and on his second trip in 2015, was welcomed by his Filipino relatives in a homecoming in Angeles City.

 

To make every vote count for Clarkson, fans may tweet or retweet or reply using #NBAVOTE Jordan Clarkson on Twitter once a day up to Tuesday. On Facebook, fans may post #NBAVOTE Jordan Clarkson on their personal account or comment on another’s post. On Google Search, fans may search “NBA Vote All-Star” or “NBA Vote (Los Angeles Lakers)” and use voting cards to select teams then players. Fans may submit votes for 10 unique players each day until Tuesday. On NBA.com, fans may choose up to two backcourt and three frontcourt players from each conference in a full ballot once a day or every 24 hours up to Tuesday. On NBA App (available on Android and iOS), fans may access the ballot and vote a full ballot once a day. Unique votes for Clarkson will make more impact on Twitter, Facebook and Google Search.

 

The five starters for the West and East will be decided by the weighted average of a player’s standings based on the votes from the fans (50 percent), NBA players (25 percent) and about 75 media practitioners (25 percent). The starters will be announced on Jan. 19.  The seven reserves on both squads will be chosen by the head coaches in each conference and they won’t be allowed to vote for their own players.