One of the highlights of the NBA season is All-Star Weekend. It is a long-standing tradition that recognizes the players that have been playing exquisitely over the first half of the NBA season. However, in recent years there have been many complaints about the selection of the All-Stars, and there is one main reason: fan/media voting.
Fan voting is a horrible idea, and should be abolished from the All-Star selection process, or at the very least, hold less weight. Here are just a couple examples about why the system is not good at all.
For starters, Luka Doncic getting voted over Dame. Damian Lillard had more player votes and media votes for All-Star selection. However, Luka Doncic had a much bigger lead for fan voting. Here’s a couple issues with this selection.
Damian Lillard has been a much more efficient player this season. Lillard is shooting with .625 TS%, compared to Luka’s .586 TS%. Even when looking at the basic stats, Lillard has higher shooting splits than Luka including 3P%, and eFG%. When looking from a playmaking perspective, according to fivethirtyeight, Dame’s AST/TO ratio/%’s are much better than those of Luka Doncic.
This comparison is just one example. A much more extreme example is the fact that the top 10 western guards had Alex Caruso and Klay Thompson. We do not need to even glance at the stats to know that these are feeble votes. Klay Thompson has not set foot on the court ever since his ACL and Achilles injuries.
The Alex Caruso vote proved two things: how easy it is to vote players in “for the memes” and also how market size affects All-Star voting. In the previous year we saw Tacko Fall get voted into the top 10. Both Caruso and Fall play for two of the biggest markets in the USA, LA and Boston. Due to the sheer size of LA, and the increasing bandwagon fanbase of the Lakers since the Bron signing, has increased the popularity of the Lakers, thus a higher chance of there being a Laker All-Star.
These are just a couple examples and reasons for the absurdity of fan voting. At the very least, the weight that fans hold in their hands should be massively decreased. This discredits some of the weight that All-Stars have for debates, because of how disrespectful fans/casuals are towards other great players in the league.
At the end of the day, voting as a fan is fun, and having a say in your favorite player’s potential of participating in All-Star Weekend is something we all want to do, so as long as the NBA can decrease the weight of the fan vote, it is not too big of a problem.
