At one point, the NBA was the most progressive of the four major franchises, capitalizing on fan interest and participation by asking its legions of supporters for their input on selecting its all stars. And for more than 30 years, that formula worked to great success.
Today, that formula appears to have backfired.
With starting lineups for the 2010 NBA All-Star game being announced this upcoming Thursday (01/21/10), Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson are the leading candidates to start at guard in both the West and the East’s lineups.
The problem is, not even the Houston Rockets want McGrady in the lineup. And Iverson, who is compiling votes on name recognition alone, entered this season with Memphis before mutually severing the relationship, retiring for a few days and reemerging with the Philadelphia 76ers, his NBA ancestral home.
In other words, these guys are yesterday’s stars and today’s luxury players. We’re still awaiting word whether or not McGrady will get traded and actually play this season.
Here’s a quick look at both of their numbers:
Tracy McGrady
Season Team G GS MPG FG% 3p% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
09-10 HOU 6 0 7.7 0.368 0.500 0.667 0.0 0.8 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.3 0.2 0.3 3.2Allen Iverson
Season Team G GS MPG FG% 3p% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
09-10 MEM 3 0 22.3 0.577 1.000 0.500 0.3 1.0 1.3 3.7 0.3 0.0 2.3 1.7 12.3
09-10 PHI 15 15 33.4 0.450 0.333 0.835 0.3 2.5 2.8 4.8 0.7 0.1 2.2 2.1 15.1
Neither of these guys deserve an All-Star mention. Not with guys like Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace balling out of his mind, Joe Johnson leading the Atlanta Hawks to the No. 3 spot in the East and Kevin Durant averaging 29 points a game. And these guys are mostly forwards.
What about Rajon Rondo, who is basically attempting a triple-double every night? Do you push out Dwyane Wade for him because Iverson is the top vote getter?
Or how about Brandon Roy, who is averaging 23 points a game to lead the Portland Trailblazers back to competitiveness. He’s hands down one of the best guards in the game. How do you fit him in with Kobe Bryant having locked down a spot before the season started and McGrady mailing in his own votes. Monta Ellis anyone?
There’s too much talent around the league to complain about who will be left out, as all hoop fans argue each year, but the integrity of the game appears to be broken this season more so than ever before. There will legitimately be players in the lineup who aren’t even the stars on their own respective teams.
That’s disappointing.
It’s my belief that the fans voting has always marked which players were the most exciting and most fan friendly in the league and which were the most exposed on the TNT/ESPN teams (Lakers/Mavericks/Suns/Magic/Spurs/Celtics). Adding to that, fans voted in favor of players who had performed well in the prior year.
This year shows signs of some of the former, none of the latter.
We all know it pays to play in a big market. But now we’re seeing how much it can hurt the overall game — as evidenced by the all-star voting — when the underexposure of the league’s top talent is regulated to playing second fiddle to guys who basically aren’t playing.
League commissioner David Stern shouldn’t brush aside this development. Fan voting is still integral to the game, and the league’s comments on this issue still reflect that. But the league must do a better job of marketing its real stars, the ones playing for the Thunder and the Bobcats and the Portland Trailblazers.
Oh, and don’t forget those Golden State Warriors.
Here are my all-star votes:
Yeahhhh….so, not different than any other year?
It’s pretty different from last year and year’s before because now we’ve got possibly three different people who haven’t played significant minutes for their teams about to start. That hasn’t been the case for a long time. The last, most questionable NBA all-star selection was Michael Jordan in his comeback year. There hasn’t been this much controversy since.
Well, it’s helped that the stars – save for T-Mac – have been relatively healthy throughout.
ESPN’s Hollinger is also upset that Amare Stoudemire, listed as a forward, is leading the votes. While Tim Duncan, who is also listed as a forward, should be listed as a center. Basically, they should swap. Here’s his two cents: http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-100119/daily-dime-live
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