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Breaking down the NBA All-Stars announcement
Mark Pybus
Roar Guru
23rd January, 2015
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The entire Spanish population must have voted for Marc Gasol and his brother Pau's All-Star inclusion. (Erik Drost / Flickr)
Mark Pybus
Roar Guru
23rd January, 2015
1

So the NBA’s annual popularity contest results are in and we have a new prom king this year in Steph Curry.

LeBron James was leading the vote count at the last check on January 8 before the final announcement on TNT‘s recent broadcast, but Curry’s legion of fans got him over the line as the highest vote getter in 2015.

A few notable absentees from the list of starters include Chris Paul, Kevin Love, Chris Bosh, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.

Let’s take a look at the All-Star starting selections.

Western Conference

Steph Curry
The leading vote getter, Curry has been on fire this season leading the Warriors to an NBA best 34-6 record. Currently he is seventh in scoring, fifth in assists, second in steals, third in player efficiency (PER) and third in three-pointers.

He is the perfect guard to have in the All-Star game with his out-of-this-world handle and dribble moves and dead eye three point shooting. Also I remember this one time when Steph walked into Madison Square Garden, he walked out with 58 points to his name.

Kobe Bryant
Kobe gets his 17th All-Star selection based on his star power rather than his play this season. Having a lot of fans in China has helped Kobe but to say he is having a better season than James Harden is impossible. This is all based on fan voting so the selections are not always a reward for those playing well in the current season so you can’t get mad at Kobe being selected. Harden only finished 82,000 votes behind Kobe so love for the beard is still strong. Kobe, however, is not likely to take the court given his recent rotator cuff injury.

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Blake Griffin
Griffin has had a fairly inconspicuous season compared with his high flying days of past, but given the opportunity he can unleash a full array of punishment on an NBA ring. Everyone loves throwing an alley-oop to Blake so watch out for him on the fast break or just in general play. I am predicting he jumps over Kyle Lowry for a dunk and Lowry gets a new nickname, Kia.

Anthony Davis
‘The Brow’ was my early season prediction for MVP and he still leads PER by a very wide margin. The Pelicans don’t get many nationally televised games so this is one of the only opportunities for Davis to shine. In his second All-Star Game expect Davis to have more of an impact and delight the masses with his guard like skills and devastating dunking.

Marc Gasol
One half of the Gasol All-Star combo, Marc isn’t having an outstanding statistical season nor is he a particularly flashy player. This one baffles me a bit but given Pau had the second most votes in the East I’m assuming all of Spain had a sneaky plan as they really wanted the Gasol brothers to make it together.

Eastern Conference

John Wall
Wall makes his second All-Star appearance and is the perfect fit at point guard now that Rajon Rondo has switched over to the West. He has the athleticism, flashy passing and entertaining personality to provide a fun spectacle. If he can replicate his 22 assist game in the rookie-sophomore game from 2011 then everyone will be happy.

Kyle Lowry
If there was a list of players that really deserve to make the All-Star Game then Lowry is number one in many people’s eyes. At the last count on January 8, Lowry was 100,000 votes behind Dwyane Wade for the second guard spot but a determined social media campaign by Drake and Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper saw him over the line. He even avoided the Justin Bieber curse that has plagued professional sports this season after Bieber tweeted support for Lowry.

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LeBron James
LeBron was always going to be at the top of fans’ voting lists but surprisingly was pipped at the post for most votes. We all know what we are getting with James – athletic dunks, effortless passes and a light hearted demeanour. With Bryant not expected to play, it will give LeBron some breathing room after Kobe’s competitive defensive efforts against him in the last few All-Star games. Won’t he feel bad if Kyrie doesn’t get selected given he has taken the ball out of Kyrie’s hand in Cleveland.

Carmelo Anthony
Anthony will be serving as local ambassador throughout the All-Star Weekend (I was kind of hoping the City of New York announced Taylor Swift in this position but whatever) so being a starter sort of makes sense. He is battling injury and some say he will shut his season down after his hosting duties are done. Let’s hope he goes out with a bang as many NBA fans have stopped watching the Knicks play this season.

Pau Gasol
This one doesn’t sit right and there had to have been a campaign going to get the Gasols on the All-Star team. Granted, he is having a comeback season with the Bulls but he received the second most votes for any player in the East. It can’t all be Chicago Bulls fans as he received more votes than Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose combined.

This will be his first appearance since the 2011 game and when asked to comment on being selected with his brother he answered in typical Gasol manner with: “It’s a dream come true… I’m proud to be Marc’s brother and proud of what he has become as a basketball player and a man”.

Interesting All-Star titbits
• Steve Kerr is the first rookie head coach to coach an All-Star Game since Larry Bird in 1998.
• Pau anda Marc Gasol are the first brothers to both start in the All-Star Game together (and first brothers to make it in the same year since Tom and Dick Van Arsdale in 1971).
• Steph Curry is only the 17th player to lead the voting in the 40 years since the voting system was introduced.
• Kevin Durant is the first MVP not to be named a starter in the following year since Dirk Nowitski in 2008.
• If Kyrie Irving isn’t named as a reserve he misses out on the ‘Derrick Rose Rule’ where he is entitled to a max contract worth 30 per cent of the team’s salary cap space instead of the 25 per cent norm. In order to get the 30 per cent max a player must either be named MVP, make two NBA ‘All-Teams’ or be a double All-Star while on their rookie contract.

Irving isn’t guaranteed to make the East reserves and you could argue that he would have been a lock if LeBron didn’t announce his return to Cleveland. Could it be that LeBron has cost Kyrie millions of dollars in the process of trying to make good with Cleveland?

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