Marbury leads newly announced CBA All-Star Game starting lineup

Former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury of the Beijing Ducks led the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association) All-Star Game starting lineup ballot with 847,868 votes, securing his berth at the culmination of the All-Star Weekend, the league's official website cba-china.com announced Monday.

The game features five star players from the North and South divisions respectively, with the starting lineup being selected by a fan ballot which began on November 25 and ended Sunday. The reserves will be chosen by the head coaches of the two sides.

The coaches are set to be -decided in the coming days. The coach with the best record in each division will become head coach of that division in the All-Star Game, with the -second best coach becoming the assistant coach.

The Guangdong South China Tigers are providing the highest number of starting All-Stars, as they totaled three for the starting show against the North All-Stars. They are -center Yi Jianlian (822,544 votes), forward Zhu Fangyu (661,650 votes) and guard Wang Shipeng (663,793 votes).

Veteran Wang Zhizhi of the Bayi Rockets, who used to play as a center, was assigned as the starting forward in the South Division by the fans, with 755,467 votes, while Chinese Taipei player Lin Chih-chieh of the Zhejiang -Lions netted the last berth with 678,571 votes to become the starting guard for the South.

Marbury will be backed by his club teammate Sun Yue, who earned 585,714 votes, as the starting guard.

The North All-Stars will also be strengthened by two -players from the Liaoning Flying Leopards: center Han Dejun (652,895) and forward Li Xiao-xu (656,695), plus guard Ding Yanyuhang of the Shandong Gold Lions (619,854).

The CBA All-Star Weekend is set to be held on January 18 and 19 at the MasterCard -Center in Beijing, and is the first time that the event is -being held during a CBA regular -season since 1995.