Time and again this NBA season, Gilbert Arenas has shown a flair for the dramatic.
The high-octane guard for the Washington Wizards has been known to score points in massive quantities, such as his 60 against the Los Angeles Lakers and 54 against the Phoenix Suns last month.
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But those exploits seem to pale in comparison to Arenas' feat on Thursday, when the NBA announced the starters for its All-Star Game.
Trailing the New Jersey Nets' Vince Carter by more than 214,000 votes going into the final tabulation, Arenas passed Carter in fan voting in the final week and will make his first start when the league's best meet Feb. 18 at the Thomas & Mack Center.
"It an unbelievable feeling," Arenas, who will start for the Eastern Conference, said in an e-mail from Detroit, where the Wizards will play the Pistons today. "Two years ago, I was voting myself in for the game. Now, fans are voting me in, and I'm going to do what they are looking for. I've got to give something back to the fans during All-Star Weekend.
"Dreams do come true, no matter what people say. Just work hard, and things come to life. I am a living truth of it."
Arenas, who will be making his third consecutive All-Star appearance, topped Carter by 3,010 votes, the fourth-closest margin ever for a starting spot.
Joining Arenas, second in the NBA in scoring with a 29.7-point average per game, as Eastern Conference starters are two Miami Heat players, center Shaquille O'Neal and guard Dwyane Wade, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James and Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh.
James, seventh in the league in scoring at an average of 26.8 points a game, was the overall leading vote-getter with 2,516,049 votes.
"That's something I've never dreamed of," James said. "I've always wanted to be an All-Star, but being the leading vote-getter over guys like Vince Carter, Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade and Allen Iverson, you never think that's going to happen."
O'Neal, who will be making his 14th consecutive All-Star appearance, led voting at his position despite missing 35 games after undergoing surgery on his left knee Nov. 19. He returned to action Wednesday for the first time since Nov. 12 and played 14 pain-free minutes.
Had he not made the team, O'Neal would have been in Las Vegas anyway to attend parties at Pure, a nightclub at Caesars Palace in which he is an investor.
One player who remains injured and will miss the game is Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, who led the Western Conference in voting at his position with 2,451,718 votes. He suffered a broken tibia below his right knee Dec. 23 and is expected to miss six to eight weeks.
Also chosen to start for the West are Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, Houston guard Tracy McGrady, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett and San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan.
NBA commissioner David Stern will name a replacement on the roster for Yao, and West coach Mike D'Antoni of the Phoenix Suns will choose the starter at the position.
D'Antoni was named the West's coach after leading the Suns to a 34-8 record, the conference's second-best mark behind the Dallas Mavericks' 35-8. The honor goes to the coach with the best record in each conference, but that person cannot coach in consecutive games, and Dallas' Avery Johnson coached in last year's game in Houston.
"It's an exciting thing for our entire staff," D'Antoni said Thursday from Milwaukee, where the Suns will be going for a franchise-record 16th straight victory today when they play the Bucks. "It's going to be a great experience. I have a 12-year-old who knows these guys from his video games. Now he'll get to meet them in person."
Bryant, fourth in the league in scoring with a 28.3-point average per game, will be making his eighth consecutive All-Star appearance and ninth overall. McGrady, averaging 22.8 points per game despite battling back problems, will participate in his seventh All-Star contest.
The game will be Garnett's 10th and Duncan's ninth.
The Eastern Conference coach will be named by Feb. 4, the league's cutoff date for posting the best record. He will be either Washington's Eddie Jordan or Cleveland's Mike Brown because Detroit's Flip Saunders coached in last year's game.
The NBA's leaders in scoring, Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets, and assists, Steve Nash of Phoenix, were not voted in as starters.
Anthony, who averages 31.6 points a game, returned to action Monday after serving a 15-game suspension for his participation in a Dec. 16 brawl with the New York Knicks. He and Nash, the league's Most Valuable Player each of the past two years, who is averaging 11.6 assists per game this season, could be named to the team as reserves next week by coaches.
The NBA reported a 17 percent increase from a year ago in fan voting, which began Nov. 13 and ran through Sunday.
All-Star reserves will be announced next week. Each conference roster will consist of 12 players: the five starters and seven reserves.
