The NBA published the first returns of this season's All-Star balloting and two of the top three vote getters are the prime villains of modern basketball history - Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
Kobe leads all players with 722,682 votes so far. He has more votes than the second and third place Western Conference guards combined (Chris Paul 386,649 and Manu Ginobili 230,137).
LeBron James is third among all vote getters with 607,994 votes. Despite reports that his popularity is slipping and that sports fans don't like him after "The Decision", LeBron has over 100,000 more votes than nice guy Kevin Durant, as well as Knick Amar'e Stoudemire and dunk phenom Blake Griffin.
Kobe once made a commercial about being hated. LeBron has been openly hated on by some basketball fans, the media and even retired greats like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. Yet the votes keep piling in. I guess it's like Kobe said: "Hate me with all your heart, and hate that I'm loved for the exact same reasons."
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