Before this season started, the Bulls' Derrick Rose asked why he couldn't be considered as a possible league MVP.
↵↵He's certainly played that way with about a third of the season gone -- ranking eighth in the NBA in both scoring and assists.
↵↵Today, the league released their second round of returns in All-Star voting. Rose trails the Celtics' Rajon Rondo for the second spot among Eastern Conference guards by a relatively small number of votes -- 777,310 to 721,122. Dwyane Wade will undoubtedly win the first slot -- he's got 938,402 votes.
↵↵So get going and vote for D-Rose; he's almost assured of being selected as a reserve if he doesn't get elected, but it would be nice if he could be a starter. Other Bulls won't make it -- Joakim Noah is third among centers, but he's injured and can't play, and Carlos Boozer ranks seventh among forwards.
↵↵You've still got time to vote, by several different means. Paper balloting goes through Jan. 17; online voting at NBA.com concludes on Jan. 23. Jan. 23 is also the deadline for wireless balloting; you can vote on your mobile phone by texting the player's last name to 6-9-6-2-2 ("MYNBA") or by visiting m.nba.com on any wireless carrier.