The Golden State Warriors’ Kevin Durant the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James were left off nearly half of the players’ All-Star ballots. That’s a problem.
The Golden State Warriors’ Zaza Pachulia gets a lot of love from the people of his home country of Georgia. After he nearly made the 2016 All-Star Game, the NBA decided to intervene. They wanted to ensure that “unqualified” candidates wouldn’t somehow find themselves in the starting lineup in the star-studded contest so they made some significant changes to the selection process.
The All-Star Game is meant to be a night for the fans to select their favorite players to play a wild and meaningless exhibition game. This year, the game for the fans was only half decided by them. The fan vote accounted for just 50 percent of the total vote.
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The other half came from a player vote and a media vote. Each portion counted for 25 percent each and were added together and totaled with the fan vote. The new system was meant to ensure that the best possible players got into the game.
And it, mostly, served its purpose. Pachulia will not be going to New Orleans in February for the exhibition game. Despite finishing in second place among all Western Conference frontcourt players, he got very little support from his NBA peers and even less from the media.
The system is broken, more than ever. The changes were meant to “fix” it, but it did the opposite. The fans no longer have the say they deserve and, now, new problems have presented themselves.
Diminishing the power of the fan was meant to prevent groups of dedicated voters from sending unworthy individuals to the All-Star Game. It was meant to combat reckless voters. What the NBA didn’t realize is that it was giving power to equally as irresponsible people.
Kevin Durant is an MVP candidate. While he’s definitely behind James Harden and Russell Westbrook, he’s clearly in the mix with LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard. His worthiness to be a start was obvious.
Yet, according to Basketball Insiders’ Alex Kennedy, 154 players left Durant off their ballot. That’s a little less than half of the 364 players that participated in the vote. Just as bad, James was left off 128 player ballots.
The retired Mo Williams received a vote (courtesy of Tony Allen). The Bucks’ Khris Middleton, who wasn’t played a game this year, also received a vote. There were even more head scratching selections from the players (check them out here).
The exclusion of Durant and James from so many of the players’ ballots didn’t have an impact this year. Those guys will be starting in the All-Star Game, most likely matching up with each there. But the flaws and problems were exposed. Perhaps one day enough players will use their vote to get someone unlikely in.
The difference between thousands of fans voting for Pachulia and a handful of players voting for guys that haven’t stepped onto an NBA court is that the All-Star Game isn’t for those players to enjoy. The game is for the fans. The vote belongs to them.
If the players (and the media) aren’t going to take the process seriously, then the full power should be returned to the fans. What’s worse: including Pachulia, a guy that hundreds of thousands of fans want to see, or, somehow, excluding Durant or James?
If enough fans want to see someone, then that player should be in if the votes are there. The game is for them. The players are no more qualified than the fans, especially when they take it even less seriously than the fans do.
The voting is more broken now than it ever was before. The fact that nearly half the players didn’t include two of the top three players in the league on their ballot proves. The NBA needs to give the fans their full vote back.
The players don’t deserve a vote for an event that isn’t designed for their entertainment. If the NBA really cares about preserving the integrity of the All-Star Game, then they’ll take the vote away from people who have special interests and/or a general disregard for the entire process.
Instead, they should give it back to the fans, whose special interests are what drive the league and, especially, the All-Star Game.
