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All-Star Joke

With Christmas in our rearview mirror and the New Year looming large, what holiday tradition is on our mind? Why the NBA All-Star Voting of course!

It’s the time of year when excitement is in the air and deserving NBA Players around the world hope that a few of the estimated 450 MILLION NBA Fans in China will remember their name come voting time.

Frankly, the entire NBA All-Star voting process reeks so much that real fans simply back away from the All-Star game completely. It has become a popularity contest based pretty much on the ability of Players to get their name out to the public. I mean even the NBA has a “vote early, vote often” slogan. Who cares if 90% of the voting public both in the United States and from other Countries have no idea what a “good” Player is. It’s all about setting records for the most votes, most popular, most times selected, records for the most people attending a game… yada, yada, yada. Yawn.

What does it matter if some of the Players elected have no business being on ANY NBA court, much less an All-Star court?

Who cares if electronic “Voting Bots” that make that “Vote Early and Often” phrase a freakish reality are used?

What does it matter if you have Players taking up All-Star spots that have logged more Twitter time than court time?

Yes, the NBA All-Star game as it is now known is a joke. It’s nothing more than a reward for corporate sponsors who want to sell more shoes, clothing and NBA related items. The actual game means nothing. Frankly, being an NBA All-Star Player is also beginning to mean very little.

It’s time for a change… and a big one at that.

Start here.

ELIMINATE free voting. If you are a Fan and want to vote then you need to either be a PAYING member of NBA.Com or a full or partial (at least 10 games) season ticker holder for any NBA team. You get ONE BALLOT VOTE (paper or electronic) which will require your NBA membership number or your Season ticket holder number. Being a Season ticket holder would automatically give you NBA.Com voting access. If you vote more than once with the same ID number, all votes with that number are void. End of discussion.

Don’t tell me this is too complicated. We live in a very technical, computer-related world. If you are an advertiser, think of the ‘targeted ads’ available! If you are the NBA, think of the ad revenue not to mention the paid website membership and boatload of demographic data you will get.

Media, Coaches, Team Staff (trainers, doctors, etc.) and NBA Players get one ballot vote.

To even be considered for All-Star voting the NBA MUST find some logical standards to apply. It could be average minutes per game for a certain percent of the previous season. It could include points scored, blocks, assists, etc. You get the idea. It has to be based on actual game statistics. You could also eliminate players who have too many technical fouls or other verifiable game-related negative issues. Off-court issues should not be considered.

But the really big item should be that if a Player is selected and they are not 100% able to play in the All-Star game then they forfeit their position.

Get the Fans back into the game. The NBA should guarantee that at least 51% of ALL seats (not just nose-bleed) are available FIRST to Season ticket holders at a REASONABLE price. For example the price should not exceed the normal regular season seating prices for the Arena where the All-Star game is played. If a seat is $71 for regular season games then it needs to be $71 (or less) for the All-Star game.

Make the All-Star game really mean something. Anything would be better than nothing. For example, the All-Star winner (East or West) should guarantee that the next All-Star game location is selected from the winning conference group of teams.

But, of course NONE of this will happen. The current “process” is too choked with good-ol-boy network crap. Making any change, much less any of what I described, would require an admission of a problem… and we all know THAT will never happen.

So… business as usual. China gives us 98% of all our other stuff. We may as well let them select our NBA All-Stars too.