The NBA All-Star game polarises opinions among fans, experts and coaches alike. The fans voted in Anthony Mason and B.J.Armstrong and the reserves have included names like Jamaal Magloire, Mehmet Okur and Tyrone Hill.
You could write an entire article debating each of those five selections, but move the current day and we see controversial selections among the Western Conference roster in particular.
The problem in part lies with the criteria, or lack thereof, that are used of the players to select players.
The fans
Selecting the starters is purely a fan vote, and that is understandable to an extent. I say to an extent because one would question how many legitimate NBA fans vote when the starters are littered with injury prone players past their prime like Kobe and Melo this season.
Furthermore, big markets with more fans like New York and Los Angeles are always going to vote for their home town players. Case in point – Jeremy Lin polled twice as many votes as Mike Conley. There is no world in which this is even remotely defendable.
What’s more, Derrick Rose polled five times as many as Jeff Teague. Again, Atlanta ‘fans’ have only recently boarded the bandwagon but that cannot but those results point to a system that is fundamentally wrong.
Need more evidence? Jonas Valanciunas and Kevin Garnett polled more votes than Andre Drummond. I re-read that sentence four times after writing it and double checked the votes and still almost didn’t believe it.
When things like this happen, you can’t help but think that NBA fans need to be swabbed because there is not a criteria on the basketball court (free throw shooting aside) which should allow this to happen.
Hey don’t get me wrong – it’s not all doom and gloom. The fans selected Steph Curry, Anthony Davis and LeBron James as the three highest vote getters and most would agree they are the three best players in the game today.
The coaches
This might surprise some but coaches are human. Some are pathologically competitive like Gregg Popovich, some are (seemingly) ridiculously natural and relaxed like Steve Kerr, some are woefully incompetent like Ty Corbin and some are amazingly lucky like Phil Jackson.
But they are human and they have their favourites. Is there a chance that they take their ability to vote for All-Star reserves as a chance to make a statement? I would think so, and in a way you probably can’t blame them.
They look at DeMarcus Cousins and see a talented but immature player who has a well publicised personal goal based around the number of technical fouls he commits.
They choose to consider the fact that he ranks in the top 10 in points, rebounds and blocks per game totally irrelevant. Throw in a few steals and blocks and a two-way game that is both fundamentally sound and aesthetically pleasing and he clearly belongs at home in the league’s exhibition showcase – or apparently not.
They look at Damian Lillard and think…let’s be honest, I don’t know what they think. Lillard is a proven scorer who has taken all before him as an offensive juggernaut in his career.
He craves the big moment and has a reputation for hitting game-winning shots, be they back-to-back road game winners or playoff-series clinching 24 footers. Most players spend a career trying to achieve what Lillard has achieved before his 25th birthday.
He is a below average defender but you know what, defence is frowned upon in the All-Star game. Dunks are encouraged, fouls are scarce and players are always a step slow given the fact they have spent 72 hours preparing in the most non-professional way possible.
Lillard and Cousins represent two of the more startling oversights in recent NBA All-Star history. The players they should have replaced are Tim Duncan and Chris Paul.
By any measure, Duncan is one of the top 10 players of all time. His longevity and consistency are historic and if I need to score in a Game 7, I am going to the Big Fundamental. But this isn’t, and I don’t.
I want flashy plays and guys who will play up to the crowd. That ain’t Timmy, so leave him at home.
As for Paul, he is one of the generation’s better point guards with a fantastic regular-season record, but his points, assists and steals per game average are down this season. He plays lockdown defence, but this game is about shooting and running and putting on a show. If I want to run a pick and roll, I have Paul involved but in this game the fans want to be entertained.
One can’t help but think the selections or Duncan and Paul are a generational statement mixed with a lifetime achievement award rather than a recognition of what the All-Star game represents.
The coaches selected James Harden, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler and three Atlanta Hawks to the bench to prove they are taking this at least semi-seriously. But overall, the concept needs fixing.
The solution
So how do we fix it? Or perhaps more to the point, does it need fixing? Yes it does, and it begins with taking the voting away from the fans. Fans are often irrational, one-eyed and don’t get it right.
I am an avid Dallas Mavericks fan and I voted for Dirk Nowitzki this year. The fact I can place that vote and that it is counted is just wrong!
The NBA MVP is voted on by writers, some of whom take it as an opportunity to big note themselves but all in all they get it right. Let them vote for all 12 players – by all means set the categories under which they vote – but state clear criteria of entertainment and let them choose the participants.
Make the votes transparent, name the writers and make them accountable. We should know when someone places a vote just to get a reaction, like the writers who voted for Stephen Jackson in 2009, P.J.Brown in 2004 or those who didn’t vote for Shaq in 2000 or LeBron in 2013.
Accreditation should be removed when decisions like this are made.
The second idea is perhaps more radical but could work. Ditch the idea of playing conference against conference because it means nothing. What do we achieve by splitting teams this way, and don’t we risk leaving our deserving players by doing things this way?
Instead we have the top 24 players and nominate two captains. The captains are the players with the most overall votes, and they select their team like we did in the schoolyard.
Captain Curry and Captain Davis flip a coin for the chance to select LeBron or KD?
If you want to win a playoff series, it’s about tactics and fundamental basketball and that will always be the case. But if you want to showcase the league’s best talent in a one-off game, you need to get flashy and concentrate on flair.
Footnote – the author’s choice
To generate discussion, the 24 players I would have playing my All-Star game are: Curry, Davis, James, Durant, Westbrook, Griffin, Irving, Harden, Teague, Rondo, Cousins, Lillard, M.Gasol, Wall, Oladipo, Korver, Wiggins, Antekoumpo, Whiteside, Drummond, Ginobili, Draymond Green, Bledsoe and Carter-Williams. Honourable mentions to Lawson, Millsap, Ibaka, Rose, Hayward and Conley.
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