All-Star Ballots are out.

[GNG]

Kobe has 200k+ more votes than Steph Curry and has more votes than Lebron and Durant combined.

Maybe the fans shouldn't get a vote.

 

[trojanfan12]

Maybe the fans shouldn't get a vote.

The game is a meaningless exhibition that is and always has been for the fans. It's who the fans want to see, not necessarily who the best players are. It's supposed to be a popularity contest and that's exactly what it is.

Kobe isn't the first all-time great who got voted into an all-star game after he was no longer all-star caliber and he won't be the last. People who think it's supposed to be about the best players are missing the point.

Besides, you don't promote the entire all-star weekend as being for the fans and then take away the very thing that makes it for the fans.

 

[ducky]

Kobe isn't the first all-time great who got voted into an all-star game after he was no longer all-star caliber and he won't be the last. People who think it's supposed to be about the best players are missing the point.

Absolutely true.

....but we have never seen a player having anywhere close to as bad as a year as Kobe is now in the All star game either. Some All stars have fallen off before....but rarely have they fallen off a cliff like Kobe has. You can make a pretty good case that Kobe is the worst player in the league this year (meaning he is the most detrimental to his team....not the least talented).

I can understand voting for a guy in a swan song situation....but for me I couldn't do it if that player had fallen this far.

 

[CitySushi]

Devin Booker didn't make the Rising stars game. I think it mainly has to do with how the game is set up as US vs. World. The US squad is stacked, while the World team has a few lesser talented players.

US Squad
Jordan Clarkson
Rodney Hood
Zach Lavine
Nerlens Noel
Jahlil Okafor
Jabari Parker
Elfrid Payton
D'Angelo Russell
Marcus Smart
Karl Anthony Towns

World Squad
Bojan Bogdanovic
Clint Capela
Mario Herzonja
Nikola Jokic
Nikola Mirotic
Emmanuel Mudiay
Raul Neto
Kristaps Porzingis
Dwight Powell
Andrew Wiggins

 

[trojanfan12]

Absolutely true.

....but we have never seen a player having anywhere close to as bad as a year as Kobe is now in the All star game either. Some All stars have fallen off before....but rarely have they fallen off a cliff like Kobe has. You can make a pretty good case that Kobe is the worst player in the league this year (meaning he is the most detrimental to his team....not the least talented).

I can understand voting for a guy in a swan song situation....but for me I couldn't do it if that player had fallen this far.

Again, it doesn't matter if that's who fans want to see (although, to be fair, I didn't vote for him). There may not be any who have fallen off as much as Kobe, but there have been players who have been voted into the all-star game when they were injured or not even playing anymore. The fans vote for who they want to see, which is the point of the game.

Fans want to see him 1 last time, so it's kind of a "lifetime achievement award." Don't really see an issue.

 

[wildturkey]

The fans shouldn't be allowed to vote for starters. It'd be fine if being an all star were totally meaningless but people use that as a metric to compare how great a player's career was and they benefit financially from it during their careers. If the NBA wants to get fans involved, they'd be much better off picking 5 or so players and having fans vote in the final two spots for each team. So media/coaches pick 10 players to the roster, then fans vote from a pool of players to pick the final two spots.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

Can't really argue with anything that went down.
I still say they should add a legacy spot or 2 on each roster so guys like Kobe don't take spots from deserving players, and then players like Dirk also get it.

 

[bksballer89]

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

Plus, Whiteside would have been more deserving than Love.
Obviously they can't take both Bosh and Whiteside, but Bosh was the right choice.

 

[msgkings322]

Welp, looks like Pop is coaching the West in the AS game.

Which he probably hates

 

[LAD]

Which he probably hates

Well he could've said no thank you.

 

[bksballer89]

Cavs' Lue surprised by Love's All-Star snub

 

[wildturkey]

Cavs' Lue surprised by Love's All-Star snub

He's kinda got a point though. There's been a trend of rewarding winning teams with multiple AS. Cavs are 3rd best in the League but have 1 AS. Spurs are 2nd best but have 2, yet Aldridge's numbers are worse for the year than Love's but no one says Aldridge doesn't belong (quite the opposite, most everyone had him solidly in). I had Love in, but thought it was close between him, Gasol, Whiteside and Thomas for a WC spot so I'm not too upset with it. But I just find it interesting that the reaction seems to be Love was no where close yet Aldridge gets in easy. The situations are almost exactly the same.

I blame Love's perm

 

[The Derski]

3 point contest contestants

 

[The Derski]

Let's go Booker!

 

[CitySushi]

Surprised no Kawhi. Other than that it's a star studded field.

 

[Shaqdaddy11]

Interesting to see big men in the Skills Competition for the first time!

 

[wildturkey]

3 point contest contestants

That's a lot of dudes. Has it always been that many?

 

[The Derski]

That's a lot of dudes. Has it always been that many?

It does seem like a lot but I looked it up and there were the same amount last season and probably previous seasons too.