Thursday January 27 2011 – 7:51pm Eastern – Toronto, ON
The NBA All Star STARTERS were announced (based on fan voting) less than an hour ago … and I’ve got them right here for ya folks:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Dwyane Wade
Derrick Rose
LeBron James
Amare Stoudemire
Dwight Howard
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Chris Paul
Kobe Bryant
Carmelo Anthony
Kevin Durant
Yao Ming
——————–
I know we get into this every year … but ‘fan voting’ is such a joke. If you want to give the fans PART of the vote — a percentage — fine. But to give 100% of the decision to the fans is a complete farce when a guy like Yao Ming is selected as a starter.
Ming has appeared in only 5 games this year!
Listen, I may be making a bit of a leap here … ‘rushing to judgment’ as they say … but I have to believe that a bulk of these votes are coming from Yao’s international fan-base.
IF that’s the case, those votes cheapen the process and make everything appear to be disingenuous.
The All Star RESERVES – as selected by the coaches – will be announced next Thursday. I’ll make my selections (guessing) in a future blog in the coming days.
E. Smith
8 Responses to “All Star STARTERS Announced”
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Fan voting being an obvious Corruption of the voting is not new. It has traditionally been simply a popularity contest, supplemented by big market “box stuffing”.
They still hand out ballots at games???
The bigger trouble has come with the rise of international stars. Yao Ming is only the beginning and the worst possible scenario; an Asian star in the land of 1 billion votes.
If we ever get an Indian star, another All Star will be born.
Probably won’t matter if the fans voted for just the starters or the reserves only, Yao would be in.
Regardless of the sense of it, you can’t take the fans out of it.
Besides, if the players don’t care enough to play the game for real, what do we care if the fans get what they want???
- GaryDoes anyone even care about AllStar games, anyways?!?!?!
I know I don’t. But, I may not be in the target market of the game. I do know it’s a colossal bore to me, and I can’t imagine there are many players with the slightest interest to “report” to whatever city it’s being played in.
In fact, would anyone even notice if the game wasn’t played? A few days off for the players, and back to work…sound good?
- brento.Really I don’t care for the All Star game. I watch it for the entertainment, and to see if the dunk competition is worth watching.
Really though, no other sport does an All Star weekend justice. The NHL and NFL are a joke. However, I do like this years selection process by the NHL. Playground picks made by 2 captains. Would suck though if you were the last guy. They have the right idea at least.
What I dont understand is why Yao Ming’s name is there to begin with if he hasn’t played last year. I know for marketing reasons it makes sense but for the integrity of the event, it doesn’t. Meh. I’ll watch regardless. They should really play for home advantage in the playoff finals. That would mean something.
- NickI see the Yao vote as being similar to voting in Magic. Obviously when you compare the two careers, Yao doesn’t come close to Magic but they both had an amazing basketball career that has ended too short of excellence.
I am not of Yao’s international fan base but I am one who would vote for Yao only to catch a glimpse of a “one last dance”.
- Anthony RMan Yao has 1.3 billion people rooting for him. It was a joke when VC voted in despite lengthy injury and it’s a joke now as well.
- Eddy@Anthony R — “…both (ie. Magic and Yao) had an amazing basketball career that has ended too short of excellence.”
Are you saying Magic’s career ended short of excellence?
You may want to check out Magic’s career stats and rankings. He’s in the top 10 players in the history of the NBA. Some folks place him in the top 5.
Sounds as though you may not have watched him play…
- brento.Brento … thank you. I was going to ignore that (Magic and Yao should NEVER be in the same sentence). Thanks for handling that one for me
- Eric Smith@Brento and Eric Smith….I’m a few days late here but I just wanted to clarify my comment.
I was born in the 70′s and was a child of the 80′s. Have I seen Magic play….of course I did. Granted at the end of his career, MJ had already been dominant but my point being is that Magic’s career had ended too short. Just like Yao. I think we can all agree there. I was never putting Yao up on a pedestal as high as Magic.
- Anthony R