Have you ever thought that the people of 4chan could easily hack or stuff the ballots and make it to where scrubs are starting?
Again, the numbers are cooked. Remember when Jeremy Lin was leading the voting for guard the whole way until someone else (Chris Paul or something) overtook him at the last tally? The NBA will never allow the voting to make a mockery of their all star game. So they take a look at the actual numbers and make subtle changes where necessary to generate the desired outcome. In this case, Harden catching up is an indication that he will probably overtake Kobe by the final tally.
Dude needs to chill..... As frustrating as Kobe's fanbase is, the guy is practically done as a star. He is in the league to prove a point but nothing more. Shell of former self. Curry is popular and GSW has the best record for a long time. That spot is fair.
Kobe is not an all star this season.... But I see coaches (if he do not start) pick him as reserve just because he is Kobe.
Minor gripe: They sorted the ballot by PIE advanced metrics, which is fine if a little weird. Then they essentially listed Dwight as having a PIE of 0 because of his injury, setting him several pages into the ballot and basically ensuring no one votes for him without going looking specifically to find him. Okay...that made sense at the start, and Durant got the same treatment so I'm not calling bias in any way. But now he's played over 600 minutes and has a PIE of 15 according to NBA.com (#7 among West frontcourt), and he's still sitting on the page 4 of the ballot with no PIE listed. Meanwhile Joey Dorsey has 280 minutes and is happily seated above Dwight (and Durant, Kawhi, etc) on the ballot with his world-beating 3.4 PIE. I don't think Dwight is anywhere close to an All-Star starter this year (I'm still voting for him out of homerism), but the really stupid way they're doing the online ballot sure explains part of his really low ranking.
The All star game is a popularity competition. It's for who fans want to see in the game. In that respect yes Kobe rightfully deserves to start over Harden. If you want to see your boy Harden in there then vote for him instead of complaining. I bet some of ya'll didnt complain when Yao was voted to start over Shaq back in his rookie year
We actually were complaining back than. Also iirc correctly it was not gis rookie year. I think the all star game is boring. So i will not*watch it anyway.
All star game IS boring. I don't care the game per se either. But All-Star is an honor to your stars. They deserve the honor. And Howard and Harden both want the honor as some kind of recognition from their own fans.
What the stars care about is the All-Star honor rather than the All-Star game. If the media or the NBA officials treat Kobe a little better than other players, Kobe's huge fan base as the numbers have shown in the past years plays a role in it. If you want the Rockets to raise positive visibility in the media, VOTE them. If you want Howard and Harden to get better treatment on the court by officials, VOTE them. If you think Harden deserves the honor of a starting All-Star, VOTE him. Less importantly, if you like Howard and Harden in the game, VOTE them.
True. But it's an honor like winning a beauty pageant is an honor. Only casual fans care. Real fans understand that it's a popularity contest by subjective fans. Why would you let fans vote if it's not about popularity? Do you vote for Howard because he deserves it or because he's on your team? If he's on the Lakers, would you have voted for him? See? It's not about deserve. It's about who FANS want to give honor.
It's about whether he's fans think he deserves. And that's EXACTLY the problem if I were Dwight Howard -- Real fans of the Houston Rockets like you don't think he deserves to be voted. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Repost?src=hash">#Repost</a> from <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets">@houstonrockets</a> --- Keep voting to help push <a href="https://twitter.com/DwightHoward">@dwighthoward</a> to start in the All-Star… <a href="http://t.co/k7wxB3XHFE">http://t.co/k7wxB3XHFE</a></p>— Dwight Howard (@DwightHoward) <a href="https://twitter.com/DwightHoward/status/548866261237899264">December 27, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
how is Jeremy Lin even considered to be an All Star? I like the dude personally but he shouldnt even be in the game
