[All Star 2nd Returns] Yao leads all; T-Mac needs our votes

4 years on, some people are still smoking....

Gotta be very potent crack.

 

well i don't know what causes the boost, but when shane battier is 5th among west forwards, francis makes the team after not making it in a year he should have, cuttino gets more votes than guys like baron davis, etc, etc, it's obvious there's some sort of effect. nobody else's teammates seem to get a boost like that and nobody has a built-in rabid fanbase like yao (as we can see on this very board) so it would seem the two are connected. i'm not saying it's a bad thing, just that it is what it is.

certainly nobody else sticks out on the list like battier. none of lebron or kobe or wade's teammates seem to have gotten a disproportionate amount of votes.

 

does that mean i have to vote for Rafer aswell

if we are going to do that make it fun and do a rory fitzpatrick thing and vote Head or Novak in

 

Just to clarify for everyone.

The NBA All-Star game is not about whether players "deserve" to be in the game. This is more of a "NBA FAN Popularity Contest game". The game where the FANS vote on who THEY want to see. Not who deserves it.


The "deserves it" team is voted on by the sportswriters at the end of the SEASON and is called the AP NBA All 1st, 2nd and 3rd Teams. And keep in mind with those rankings, "team success" has A LOT to do with them.

That is all.

 

r****d, did yao deserve to start over shaq in yao's early years?. no. heck infact brad miller deserved to start over him. it's about the fans supporting there team and there players.

 

I will NOT vote for tmac because i want him to get more rest

 

Still bitter you're boy steve got traded for tracy?. even with the bad back, tracy is still superior to you're boy. you're constant tracy bashing is becoming hillarious. keep doing it. good for it is good for a laugh.

 

The fact that Battier gets more votes than Shawn Marion tickles me pink.

 

AI played great games in Denver. sorry, I have to vote AI instead of Tmac.

 

The Yao effect is real. I mean look: when Francis is with Yao, he goes to the All-Star game twice in a row. He leaves the Rox: no more All-Star game! Who takes his slot? T-Mac!

Shane Battier and Chuck Hayes have shoe endorsement contracts in China. The Yao effect? Shane Battier says definitely!

 

I feel you.

 

so you really believe Yao's more popular than Bron/Kobe/AI among US fans as the voting indicates?

 

Keep voting for battier!

 

And what is wrong to say that Yao gets a lot of votes from Chinese? I don't understand. To prove Americans love Yao more than Chinese? I don't think so.

 

That's kind of my feeling, too. He could use the time off. Same goes for Yao as he'll probably just be getting healthy. I love to see Rockets in the ASG. However, this year, I'd prefer they didn't.

On another note, who the hell is voting for Shaq? Has he even played this season? I know it's a popularity contest and all but this is ridiculous.

 

Anyone who denies that a lot of Chinese fans vote for Yao is delusional. There is nothing wrong with Chinese fans voting for Yao, either. They are a fanbase the NBA is trying to market to as well.

I also like the fact that they are finally getting Battier some much deserved attention. Not that he deserves the attention more than Shawn Marion, though... I'll be Marion is pissed off bigtime now. Sorry Shawn, you are just too ugly to be loved by fans.

 

Who cares? I wanna see Yao destroy Shaq in the ASG.

 

Chuck has mentioned it in an interview as well I believe, cause he said something along the lines of it being a little weird having fans in China and of course that was due to being Yao's teammate. (now if I could only find the quote so I could share the link! LOL)

 

thanks for sharing, interesting read... i guess they call him the "sport nut" for a reason!

 

I do think that Yao is very popular here in the US though too. He's a very recognizable figure. I mean I knew who he was before I knew who Tmac was, merely because of his non basketball commercials. I didn't follow the NBA at all until early 2004 and Tayshaun was doing so well in Detroit, but I knew about Yao before that.

I am sure that some of the votes he gets are from people who recognize his name more so than any of the other centers in the west.

Personally I wouldn't vote for Kobe or AI if my life depended on it. LaBron maybe yeah cause he's from Ohio... always good to support a "semi-local"