NBA News: Justin Beiber Heads Campaign To Get Raptors Point Guard Into All-Star Team

Point guard Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors is getting a lot of help from superstar singer Justin Bieber to land a spot in the 2015 All-Star Game.

TMZ reported that Bieber is banking on his 60 million followers on Twitter to support Lowry.

Bieber tweeted on January 19, "Toronto has been killin it and @Klow7 deserves to be an nba all star. Make sure to vote for him. #WeTheNorth. Good luck buddy."

Toronto Sun, however, pointed out that there was one problem with the singer's tweet - he did not remind voters to include the necessary hashtag to cast a valid vote.

According to the NBA rules on the All-Star Game voting, voters should publish tweets that include the hashtag #NBABALLOT together with the first and last name of the player they want to be part of the big event. For example, fans voting for the Raptors point guard should include the hashtag #NBABALLOT KyleLowry, to have a valid vote. Retweets will also count as valid votes.

As a result of Bieber's mistake, some 25,000 votes in favor of Lowry have been discarded for not containing the said hashtag.

At least, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was more informative in his tweet and made sure the mechanics were clear. He posted on Twitter, "Canadian basketball fans should get behind Kyle Lowry, who deserves to be an NBA All Star. #NBABALLOT #wethenorth @Klow7".

Other Canadian celebrities and politicians like Justin Trudeau and John Tory were also actively promoting Lowry and encouraged fans to help make him a start in the upcoming All-Star Game in February.

The starting five of the All-Star game are selected based on fan votes. USA Today wrote that Lowry is in third place for the point guard position for the All-Star East team, behind John Wall of the Washington Wizards at No. 1 and Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat at No. 2.

Lowry himself has been having a great NBA season, leading his team to a 26-14 record at present. In November, he had his fourth triple-double as a Raptor, passing Damon Stoudamire. It was the sixth in his NBA career. SportsNet reported that he was named the player of the month for December in the Eastern Conference, averaging 19.8 points, 7.7 assists and 4.9 rebounds in the current season. Only one other Raptor, Chris Bosh, was given the same recognition.

The All-Star Game balloting will end on January 19 and the starters will be announced on January 22.