A few days ago, the NBA All-Star rosters were announced. This year marks the first time that players and the media was allowed to vote for the most talented players. In the past, the All-Star rosters were selected by the fans around the US. As many can imagine, this can lead to some interesting results. Not only can this fan voting disrupt the NBA, but it did the same to the NHL in the past.
Last year, a player by the name of John Scott was voted by the fans to captain a team in the NHL All-Star game. Normally, this would be an accomplishment. However, Scott was recently sent down to the AHL, the equivalent to the minors in baseball or the D-league in basketball. The NHL had to respect the fan’s decision, but many people were upset by the ruling. Other players who were more deserving and worked harder were left out of rosters all together because of it.
This year, the NHL put a rule in place that prohibited voting a player in that wasn’t on a current NHL roster. This was a step in the right direction, and the NBA followed suit.
This year many fans found it odd that Russell Westbrook, who is averaging a triple double, wasn’t a starter. Stephen Curry and James Harden were starting instead. Once the results came out, it showed the three players were tied, with the tiebreaker being decided by fan voting. Whether or not this is a fair assessment has yet to be determined, but with the new changes in place it did keep out undeserving players. Warriors center Zaza Pachulia finished second in fan voting, even though he averages less than 20 minutes per game, and single digits in relevant stats.
To truly make All-Star voting fair, they would have to eliminate the fan voting, but the NBA doesn’t want to alienate its fans. For now, fans will have to live with seeing Westbrook coming off the bench.
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