NBA All-Star 2016 rumors: Carmelo Anthony overtakes Andre Drummond in All-Star voting

Carmelo AnthonyReuters

Carmelo Anthony is likely to get his first start in a National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star game after the latest NBA All-Star voting came out recently.

The New York Knicks star forward made a huge leap to third place with 368,336 votes, overtaking Detroit Piston's Andre Drummond who has 361,307. Unless a big splurge in votes turns up, Anthony should have a lock at one of the starting forward positions.

The others who have a lock are LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers (830,345) and Paul George of the Indiana Pacers (569,947).

Rounding up the Eastern Conference starters are Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat (736,732) and Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers (399,757).

A look at the Western Conference shows Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers still leading by a huge margin (1,533, 432) and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder at second (774,782). Draymond Green (499,947) will likely be the third player in the Western Conference frontline as he holds a 12,000 lead over Kawhi Leonard (487,626) of the San Antonio Spurs.

For the Western Conference guards, Stephen Curry leads the pack (1,206,467) while Durant's Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook is second (609,901).

By the time this piece comes out, All-Star voting may have been concluded already with the starters expected to be officially announced this Jan. 21.

 The 2016 NBA All Star weekend will be from Feb. 12 to 14, with the culminating All-Star game taking place at the Air Canada Centre.

A look over at NBA.com shows that the tickets have been sold out for Feb. 13 and 14 already, which should give NBA fans an idea how stellar and jam-packed this year's festivities will be.

Other events to look forward to include the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night, Taco Bell Skills Challenge, the Foot Locker Three-point contest, and the Verizon Slam Dunk Contest.

Also making this year's All-Star game special is that it will be Kobe Bryant's last before he finally caps his illustrious NBA career.