Letting fans vote on the NBA All-Star starting roster is like letting teenagers pick The Oscars. The fans definitely deserve to have a say in who plays in the mid-season gala event, but the starters should be voted on primarily by the players and press. Who better to judge your season than analysts, experts and a vast set of peers? Ray Allen has been one player to speak out against the current voting system and I couldn’t agree more with him.

Part of the reason that this season’s voting is causing such a ruckus is that Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady are two of the players leading the voting. In just 18 games this season, Iverson has averaged a pedestrian 14.7 points per game and 4.6 assists. McGrady hasn’t even set foot on the court as the Rockets has already made it known that they’ll sit the league’s highest paid player ($23.3 million this season, which is more than Kobe) and rest their hopes on a band of underpaid and undervalued players that prefer to play, shockingly, as a team.

Fans are able to vote online and can basically submit any player that they want. While it’s the hope that NBA.com can keep it to “one vote per person”, we all know how easily things like that can go awry. As I’ve said, if this type of voting was left to fans, then the Jonas Brothers would walk away with every conceivable Grammy Award and The Twilight Saga: New Moon would sweep The Oscars.

While putting the best players on the court during All-Star Weekend is definitely the hope of the league, the problem lies in positional assignments. Guys like Pau Gasol, Tim Duncan, Chris Bosh and Kevin Garnett are all listed as power-forwards and/or centers. In last year’s even the Eastern Conference rolled out a team comprised of Rashard Lewis, Bosh, Paul Pierce, Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett. What do you notice about that lineup? You guessed it – only one, legitimate big man.

Compare that to what the Western Conference rolled out: Yao Ming, Tim Duncan, Amare Stoudemire, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki and Shaq. Dirk is probably the only “big guy” that isn’t a true power-forward, but can you imagine a more lopsided matchup in a game that’s supposed to memorable? The Western Conference romped their Eastern Conference rivals 146-119 in large part due to the inability of the East to properly match the size of the West.


We all want to see our favorite players in the All-Star game. My question regarding the recent transgression is simply this: who the hell regards Tracy McGrady as their favorite player anymore? Iverson might as well make the roster to honor his contributions to the game on a life-time level, but twenty years from now are we going to say that Iverson’s 2009-10 season was all-star worthy? Nope. Will he be a 2009-10 all-star? Yep.

With Iverson getting a nod in the East, and McGrady getting a nod in the West, because of lopsided and unfathomable fan idiocy, two players are going to get shafted for starting rolls in the All-Star Game. One of those guys is definitely going to be Rajon Rondo, who ranks third in the league in assists and first in steals. The other will likely be Derrick Rose, who isn’t having a great season, but is a consensus top-3 point guard in the league. Rose has averaged 19.0 points and 5.9 assists per game this year. The Eastern Conference guards will likely be Iverson and Dwyane Wade, same as last year.

In the West, McGrady’s bewildering presence on the ballot means that a Western Conference guard is going to get bumped as well. What makes me so angry I could puke about this? It’s not just that McGrady hasn’t played at all this year – it’s that he didn’t even make the all-star roster last year! What the hell has changed with him in a suit on the sidelines that has caused fans to rally behind him? With Kobe Bryant a lock solid pick for one of the guard positions, who’s getting shafted? Take your pick between Steve Nash, Chris Paul or Deron Williams.
Part of the excitement for me with All-Star weekend is writing about debatable snubs, or predicting all the NBA All-Star betting props, spreads, excessively high totals and sideshow lines for the dunk, 3-point and skills contest (shouldn’t “skills” be spelled with a “z” on the end?). When guys like Iverson and McGrady sneak in because fans want to see them, it’s deplorable. If Arenas was in jail right now, would fans vote him in and lobby for a one-day vacation from behind bars?
The All-Star game is a privilege and an honor and while fans should be getting smarter and more informed with the enormous amount of information access via the internet, satellite and cable TV, satellite radio and magazines, they’re just as dumb as they used to be. I’m all for popularity contests…in high school. I want the NBA All-Star game to mimic those ridiculous teams I put together in NBA video games. Simply put, I want to see the best going up against the best. I could care less about what the “fans” think, because they’ve spoken in hordes and droves and all they sound like is a bunch of idiots.


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