Justin Bieber has a ridiculous 73 million Twitter followers. Say what you will of his music — my tween daughter hates his stuff, I’ll take her word for it — the man is a social media powerhouse.
Thursday he through that social media power behind a push to get Chris Paul a starting spot in the All-Star game. You can vote on Twitter — fans pick the All-Star Game starters — and Thursday Bieber cast his ballot and tried to get his massive following to help out.
Everyone RT this to get my man Chris Paul @cp3 into the All-Star game. #NBAVote @CP3
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) January 8, 2016
I got u bro. Best guy right here. Chris Paul. @CP3 #NBAVote
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) January 8, 2016
Those two tweets have been retweeted — which counts as another vote — nearly 55,000 times. That’s more votes than Giannis Antetokounmpo has gotten total so far.
And it’s not going to be enough.
Paul was third in the fan voting as of Thursday, trailing starter Russell Westbrook by 210,840 votes. Even with Bieber’s social media powers, it’s not going to be enough to close that gap. I suppose Bieber would like to say “Never Say Never” but, well, it’s never going to happen.
(Stephen Curry leads the vote-getting guards and is another 450,000 ahead of Westbrook, I think we can assume he’s going to make the cut.)
Don’t worry Justin, you can be sure the coaches will pick CP3 as an alternate for the All-Star Game in your native Canada on Feb. 14.
Please, please NBA, just don’t let Bieber perform. Drake I expect. I’ll be disappointed if no The Weeknd. I’ll even live with Rush if I have to. But no Bieber, please.