Friday, February 13, 2015

Klay Thompson Named Starter on Western Conference All-Star Team

Recently, Golden State Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson was selected to replace the injured Kobe Bryant in the Western All-Star teams starting lineup. He now joins teamate Stephen Curry in the backcourt, and the Warriors coaching and training staff is also heading the Western team. The fans select the starters, while the coaches then select the reserves and injury replacements. There haven't been too many surprises this year (except for the amount of Hawks players), but the snubs seemed to pile up on a stacked West team. Luckily, thanks to some injuries, a few of these snubs, including DeMarcus Cousins (top 10 in scoring in rebounding, but team sucks) and Damian Lillard.

These snubs got me thinking about the selection process and whether or not to limit the power of the fans. Kobe Bryant is always selected as a starter, but for the past few years he's been injured during the selection period. And if all-stars should be chosen based on individual success or impact, or team success.
Article Link
Questions:
Should the voting process be altered in any way?

What defines an All-Star?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Some NBA players have criticized the all-star voting system because only a small portion of the fans vote. While I see their point I also see the advantage of changing the all-star voting system so that the entire roster is filled with voted in players, as opposed to the current system where fans vote in the starters and the league selects the reserves. It seems that the majority of fans have the ability to vote, but only the ones who care enough about all-star weekend actually do. From a business perspective an entirely voted on roster could be helpful because the fans would be more likely to be satisfied with the roster and thus more likely to watch and/or watch more of the all-star game. Also, while the amount of votes is small when compared to the total NBA fan population, the sample size is still pretty big and could be considered a fairly good indicator of the population's opinion as a whole. The NBA could also try new methods of vote counting to make it even more accessible to the public.

second question: If you agree with the method I just suggested you may believe that the most popular players are the true all stars. Some disagree and assert that all players who miss large parts of a season from injury should not be included, as they were not a big part of the season. Others point out that some all-stars are at the tail-end of their careers are playing subpar.