‘Battle of the Ballot’

The first all-star ballot results came out a few days ago. This led me to exclaim the same thing I say every year when they come out, “What the heck is going on here?” Invariably, I’m always shocked by how the fans vote. There are always people leading in their positions that make absolutely no sense. This year Dwayne Wade and Tracy McGrady fit that category. For part I one of this blog entry, I don’t want to focus on who should or should not be an all-star so much, I’ll save that for part II. Today, I want to examine what is completely screwed up about the balloting process. Before continuing, you absolutely have to read this article by Jack McCallum.

I was shocked when I read it and learned about some of the ridiculous rules that balloters must adhere to. Let’s break them down in order of absurdity:

1) The Pre-Season Rule. Can you believe that balloters have to pick the nominees BEFORE the season begins? Are you kidding me? Instead of calling this an All-Star ballot, the NBA might as well call this game what it really is, a popularity contest. This policy taints the rest of the process. Players who shouldn’t be on the ballot due to injury end up getting included.

Other players get left off when they clearly deserve to be on the ballot. Even if someone doesn’t make the team as a starter or reserve, I have to think that it’s an honor just to be nominated so it’s important the league gets this right. Not to mention, players receiving votes that shouldn’t be there draws away form people that deserve them. Players shouldn’t be snubbed or rewarded so arbitrarily.

Continuing this process would be like ranking college football teams before the season begins and then deriving bowl matches and final season results partly from the pre-season rankings. Oh wait – “NCAAF already does that” you say? I give up!

2) The 24, 24, 12 Rule. These numbers refer to the amount of players per position that must be listed. 24 guards, 24 forwards, 12 centers for both the East and the West. Aside from the fact that the NBA should break up the positions into 5 categories (point, shooting, small, power, center), they still have way to many positions devoted to the center spot. The fact is, there aren’t that many great centers in the league. Never have been, never will be. In any given year, there are probably a max of 8 centers league wide that are worth a darn. Here we are stuck with 24 total people on the ballot at center? There are only 30 teams in the league! Almost every center gets nominated. Ostertag was a nominee for years. That should tell you everything you need to know about why this policy needs to go.

3) The Rule of 3. This requirement states that each team must have 3 selections. This bothers me the least because it really isn’t hard to find 3 good players per team deserving of at least a nomination. The problem it does cause is exactly what McCallum describes happened to Devin Harris this year. He was omitted in part because they had too many Mavericks listed and needed to spread the love out to the Timberwolves and Sonics. Let’s get rid of any minimum requirements. Or at least lower it to 1.

No process for picking All-Star Nominees will be perfect, but if David Stern fixed these three glaring problems things would definitely be better. One might argue that it is all meaningless since the actual All-Star Game isn’t worth watching anyways. That may be true, but in the end it is the selection process that gets everyone interested and excited. At the end of a player’s career they are judged in part by their All-Star appearances, not their play in the actual game. That’s why I would love to see some changes to the ballot.

Here are some notable omissions from this years ballot (in no particular order):

1) Ronnie Brewer
2) Jose Calderon
3) Devin Harris

And some notable names that should NOT be on the ballot

1) Gilbert Arenas
2) Mike Bibby
3) Nene

Send me your notable names that either should or shouldn’t be on the ballot this year. Next week, I’ll break down who deserves to be on the actual team, not just the ballot.