In mid-December 1999, the second round of NBA All-Star voting officially opened.
Basketball fever across the United States showed no sign of fading. Instead, it continued to build as the voting progressed.
Compared with the tentative participation of the first round, fans were far more fervent in the second round.
Major North American sports media outlets provided around-the-clock updates on the voting. In arenas, on campuses, and in street-side bars, fans voting for their favorite stars could be seen everywhere.
The Eastern Conference standings remained as solid as a rock, with no earth-shaking changes.
Li Fei held firm as the league's undisputed number one. His vote total surged by another 300,000 from the first round, widening his overwhelming lead even further.
Michael Jordan followed close behind, his votes steadily climbing as he firmly held onto second place in both the Eastern Conference and the entire league.
Vince Carter, Alonzo Mourning, and Allen Iverson still occupied third through fifth in the Eastern Conference, never able to approach the heights of the Knicks' twin cores.
The Western Conference rankings were equally uneventful.
O'Neal remained the Western Conference vote leader, followed in order by Garnett, Kobe, Kidd, and Malone, preserving the established hierarchy of superstar powerhouses.
TNT's live broadcast crew updated the figures in real time every day, and the three commentators had long grown accustomed to this one-sided trend in the rankings.
Bill Walton bluntly stated on air that this was the least suspenseful race in NBA voting history.
Kevin Harlan jokingly remarked that every other star in the league was fighting for third place.
As the second round concluded, the NBA immediately opened the third round of voting.
By then, public opinion across the United States had completely settled. Fan voting had stabilized, and the rankings no longer changed.
The twin-core