Jordan Heads All-Stars

Around the NBA

Michael Jordan, the leading vote-getter in the history of the NBA All-Star game, Sunday became the first player to receive more than 2 million votes in one season.

In final fan voting for the Feb. 9 game at Cleveland, the Chicago Bulls guard led all players in votes for a record eighth time with 2,451,136.

Joining Jordan in the Eastern Conference starting lineup will be forwards Grant Hill of Detroit (1,868,020 votes) and Scottie Pippen of Chicago (1,683,956), center Patrick Ewing of New York (1,395,759) and guard Penny Hardaway of Orlando (1,132,024).

For the Western Conference, the starters will be forwards Charles Barkley of Houston (1,877,232) and Shawn Kemp of Seattle (1,713,049), center Hakeem Olajuwon of Houston (1,487,310) and guards Gary Payton of Seattle (1,206,539) and John Stockton of Utah (1,127,250).

The rest of the 12-man teams will be selected by all the coaches in the respective conferences and announced this week. Houston’s Rudy Tomjanovich will coach the West and Doug Collins of Detroit will coach the East.

Rodman dumps high heels

Milk, sunglasses, underwear. Now add sneakers to NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman’s lengthy list of endorsements.

Converse announced Sunday that the Chicago Bulls’ forward has signed a multi-year contract to promote two of its sneakers.

Rodman will appear in advertising campaigns for Converse’s performance basketball shoes and the canvas Chuck Taylor All-Star sneaker.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Around the league

The New York Knicks kept Pat Riley out of the All-Star game Sunday with their 14th straight home win, a 95-89 victory over the Miami Heat in a matchup of the top two teams in the Atlantic Division. Pat Ewing scored 24 points for New York.