Whatever man. The All-star games are just an exhibition and don't have any tangible impact on the NBA. The ALL-NBA teams are a much better reward for great play. Who cares if someone was great at the half season mark?

The only reason it exists is to make money and to make money they need to have fans come out and enjoy the product. And what better way to enjoy it than have them vote for who they want to see. There are 1 billion people in China that are potential viewers for this game and they want to see Yi and Yao. So let them see Yi and Yao. They hardly get to see these guys during the year so give them am an opportunity to see these guys.

Stop acting like the all-star game is a matter of life and death. ITS AN EXHBITION for people who are playing well at the halfway point.

The only thing it matters is for players who use it as a contract negotiation ploy. But you know, I don't give a crap that Player X was snubbed out of an all star apperance and can't extract another $2 mil a year from Isiah.

Posted by VDesai:

Whatever man. The All-star games are just an exhibition and don't have any tangible impact on the NBA. The ALL-NBA teams are a much better reward for great play. Who cares if someone was great at the half season mark?

The only reason it exists is to make money and to make money they need to have fans come out and enjoy the product. And what better way to enjoy it than have them vote for who they want to see. There are 1 billion people in China that are potential viewers for this game and they want to see Yi and Yao. So let them see Yi and Yao. They hardly get to see these guys during the year so give them am an opportunity to see these guys.

Stop acting like the all-star game is a matter of life and death. ITS AN EXHBITION for people who are playing well at the halfway point.

The only thing it matters is for players who use it as a contract negotiation ploy. But you know, I don't give a crap that Player X was snubbed out of an all star apperance and can't extract another $2 mil a year from Isiah.

Have you watched any All-Star games pre 1995 maybe a little further back pre 1992? It's simply as different as Life is to Death. Games were truly entertaining and mattered from the player/fan perspective.

I love when someone doesn't care about something and then presumes that everyone else should also cease to care.

Posted by VDesai:

Posted by Solace:

I love when someone doesn't care about something and then presumes that everyone else should also cease to care.

What the votes show are there are far more people who care about seeing Yao and other name recognition guys than are concerned with having a fairly represented game. Since the game is for the fans and thats what the fans are dictating- then why should it be any different.

From the league and owners perspective its a money generating tool- why should they change that if it doesn't matter from a standings perspective?

Since with internet voting, the ballots can be stuffed so easily, and not everyone gets a fair chance to vote in proportion, is that what we're seeing? I think what we're actually seeing is some fans want these people and the rest have to live with it. The best players in that given year should play, not the most popular.

Posted by Solace:

Posted by VDesai:

Posted by Solace:

I love when someone doesn't care about something and then presumes that everyone else should also cease to care.

What the votes show are there are far more people who care about seeing Yao and other name recognition guys than are concerned with having a fairly represented game. Since the game is for the fans and thats what the fans are dictating- then why should it be any different.

From the league and owners perspective its a money generating tool- why should they change that if it doesn't matter from a standings perspective?

Since with internet voting, the ballots can be stuffed so easily, and not everyone gets a fair chance to vote in proportion, is that what we're seeing? I think what we're actually seeing is some fans want these people and the rest have to live with it. The best players in that given year should play, not the most popular.

Doesn't the internet make it more fair? I mean before that, where could you vote, the arena? How many people could afford to see games.

If it's an exhibition game- meant for entertainment for the fans, wouldn't they want to see the most popular guys?

The best players are for the all NBA teams. What do the best players at the midpoint of the season really mean anyway?

I'm sorry, but I never found a grocery store that had an all-star ballot. The only time I ever got an all star ballot pre-internet voting was from a game. It's a lot easier for the common fan to vote on the internet rather than find a ballot back in the day.

Posted by VDesai:

I'm sorry, but I never found a grocery store that had an all-star ballot. The only time I ever got an all star ballot pre-internet voting was from a game. It's a lot easier for the common fan to vote on the internet rather than find a ballot back in the day.

And it's far more easier to manipulate/gimmick the voting process. Take for instance I've been to several basketball message boards where fans are purposely stuffing the ballot via the Internet as a joke to get Antoine Walker to the All-Star Game. Now of course Walker won't make it but if this was done to give those more deserving a better chance then ok it would be more tolerable. If fans are doing this then we know the overall integrity process is flawed beyond.

Posted by VDesai:

So let me get this straight- its better to have a a much smaller segment of fans vote for what is a moneymaking, fan-dicated exhibition, then the segment of fans that is up to 10 times larger? I don't understand this logic. Having the internet votes only makes it a more interactive and far reaching experience for the NBA- which is exactly what they are intending.

That's not what I'm saying. That's fine to make it more accessible to the Doofuses just modify the system so that it's not a game and has more credibility.

Posted by VDesai:

So what they should do is limit it to one vote. There is software out there that can do that. Taking the voting away from fans would not seem to be a viable option to the NBA.

Erm, how do you propose to handle people with multiple IPs or rotating IPs? Social security number? Nobody will vote.

The internet has made the voting process absurd.

For example, let's take a kid in a dorm on campus. You can easily write a script that loads itself onto every computer in the computer lab and most computers in the dorm (I could write one if I cared) and supplies a single vote per computer every day. That adds up to a lot of votes. Those type of things happen, which is why there's talk of ballot stuffing.

Look at that list above. If the fans don't vote those guys on -- the coaches will select them. There really is no controversy here.

Posted by eViL:

Look at that list above. If the fans don't vote those guys on -- the coaches will select them. There really is no controversy here.

You can find single examples where almost anything works. Hey, a stopped clock is right a day. That doesn't make it a good system for telling time.