Answer...fan voting! Allowing the "fans" to vote players into the All Star game by texting and the internet ballot is the worst voting system EVER! It has been nothing short of PROOF that the majority of the people that are voting do not know who they are voting for or why. I'm angry for several reasons other than the fact that Dirk was snubbed (again) and demoted to coming off the bench in the All Star game. Even when the man won the league MVP he came off the bench at the All Star game. Unbelievable.
Dirk has proven over his career that he deserves to be not just a guy that comes off the bench at the All Star game but part of the main show! The big introduction and the works! Nine straight All Star appearances and no starts? I understand early on Kevin Garnett was dominant and Duncan was winning championships...but now? KG is in the East and Duncan is hobbling around on an underachieving team. The Mavs are the second best team in the Western Conference and a top 5 team in the league. Not to mention that the flippin All Star game is IN DALLAS this year!
Duncan was down by 50,000 votes going into the last two weeks of voting...he won by 63,000 votes. What happened there? That is a 113,000 vote swing in two weeks...? Why I'll never understand, but how...spurs fans stuffed the ballots and made extra attempts to vote for him than normal. And I think a lot of people who don't know the game and don't know all the players vote for the names they've heard before and Duncan's name did come before Dirks on the ballot. I don't really know...I'm so perplexed by this and confused at how this happened...its just sickening!
I have 4 major complaints about this years All Star game (and maybe a few minor ones):
1) The "fans" were allowed to vote for Tracy McGrady. T Mac is washed up...and has been a perennial injury for the later half of the decade! He has played a total...TOTAL of 45 minutes the entire season...and not just due to injury. The Rockets just don't want him on the floor, and he doesn't want to play for em! Thats a terrible situation for him because he used to be really good...then its just like he fell off the edge of the world and died...who cares about T Mac...apparently the Chinese (who are communists and can't even watch all the NBA games and don't even know who is what in the NBA other than Yao and his teammates, aka: McGrady). For a guy who has only played 45 minutes in half a season worth of games is morally wrong. There are guys out there working their butts off every night and playing quite well who are way more deserving of votes! Monta Ellis for example, has played something like 23 games where he has played over 45 minutes just in one game and several, including one in which the Warriors beat the Mavs, where he has played all 48 minutes! And he's done so while averaging nearly 27 points per game. ???? What the HECK! Why is Tracy McGrady even being discussed? Luckily he did not make it as a starter...Steve Nash (deservingly so) picked up the starting honor...although it pains me to say that T Mac will still be playing as an All Star reserve...what a shame!
2) Second thing. AI...does not stand for artificial intelligence...stands for Allen Iverson...who honestly, I'm quite ashamed to admit it but I was a huge fan of his early in his career. AI who has been a nightmare drama queen the last few years as he's bounced around from mediocre team to bad team to mediocre team and through it all probably hasn't practiced any but still has a job in the NBA making money most of us wish we made and doing a lot less to get it. To begin the season he was coming off the bench for the Memphis Grizzlies... against his will. So like a child without the best crayon box...he boo hooed and whined and then he left. Philly picked him up and gave him what he wanted...a starting job. O well...but through all of this he has only played 19 games out of about 41 or so that he could have possibly played in. But alas, he is starting in the All Star game for the East. This for me is an outrage. What about Joe Johnson? Rajon Rondo? Derrick Rose? Ray Allen? At least those four have played all year and have put up career numbers and with the exception of Derrick Rose's Bulls their teams are having great seasons! I understand Dwayne Wade, but AI...come on...really?
3) Position changes...? This problem has been going on for years...its disgruntled me in the past because players (Ahem...Tim Duncan) have used this loophole if you will, to weasel their way into the starting spot in the All Star game. What certain players are allowed to do is change their position solely for the All Star game. This allows players like Tim Duncan or Amare Stoudemire to switch from their conventional positions so that they may play the All Star game as a starter at a certain position. Both Duncan and Stoudemire are more Centers than PF but both play more PF for their respective teams. I do not believe that it is fair or ok for players to switch from year to year as Duncan has in the past to ensure him a starting spot. When Duncan was listed as a Center in 07' the spurs lobbied for him to be moved to the Power Forward spot so that Duncan would not have to back up Yao Ming. (pretty sure Dirk won a league MVP that year...huh, no matter) This issue also begs a question pertaining to this year...why was Pau Gasol able to slide into the All Star game starting squad as a Center this year...? Not only was he on the ballot as a PF but hasn't he pretty much been a PF for the Lakers while Bynum and Lamar O play the middle man? Chris Kaman is the leagues leader in scoring for the Center positions this season...and he did not even make the ballot to begin with. The guy puts up 20 a game and he's not even on the ballot? Yet the guy who had the second most votes for center in the Western Conference, Andrew Bynum, wont be going to the All Star game at all...why? Pau Gasol gets to play center...WOW! Ok not only am I confusing myself about this I'm pretty sure I've ranted long enough to lose the one reader I had...you get the point!
4) Dirk Nowitzki IS better than Tim Duncan. Thats a fact! Here are the numbers:
Dirk Duncan
09-10: ppg: 26 rpg: 8 ppg: 20 rpg: 10
Career: ppg: 23 rpg: 9 ppg: 21 rpg: 12
Playoffs: ppg: 26 rpg: 11 ppg: 23 rpg: 13
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The thing about the career numbers for Dirk is he was a 18 year old kid from Germany and his first season was the lockout year where he only played like 47 games and averaged only 8 points per. the next season he bumped it up to 18 a game. but if you take out even just the first God awful year he's a 24ppg guy! duncan went to Wake Forest for four years whereas Dirk came straight from a German junior league to the NBA. Check out the playoff numbers...Dirk elevates his game tremendously, not that Duncan doesn't I mean the rings count for something and I'm not forgetting that the championship count is Duncan 4 Nowitzki 0.
The thing that just gets me is that Dirk is just so incredible coming from where he's come from and being able to accomplish what he has accomplished is truly remarkable. Duncan has never been on a bad team. He has never endured a team that didn't have other play makers at least if not Hall of Famers. Nowitzki has. When he and Nash first came to Dallas...the Mavs where disgusting! After Nash and Finley left...Dirk had Jason Terry running the point for 3 or 4 years. And he still took them 2 wins away from a championship. Duncan has always had teammates to pick up the slack when he was struggling, he has always been a part of a well organized manufacturer of championships in San Antonio...Dirk has had to literally put his entire team on his back and will them to win at times. The most I've ever heard him complain is this season while he's got probably the best team Dallas has ever put together, he said at times he feels like he has to make every shot down the stretch to pull out a win...wow...he shouldn't feel like that with the players he's got around him. But the fact is down the stretch he has made those shots...29 point 4th quarters coming from behind to win the game are testament to that!
Dirk's Dallas Mavericks sit as the number 2 seed in the Western Conference, the Spurs are considered underachievers this year...they are a few games back of Dallas and thats what counts. Dirks team is just flat out better having beat the Spurs 2 out of 3 this season so far. So with that thought on my mind I shall finish by saying this: Dirk is having an MVP year, he will be a part of the MVP voting when it takes place...so I say let Duncan get his precious start, I mean if he's got to "Al Gore" himself into a starters spot in the All Star game...fine, let him have it! But Dirk is on a better team with a better shot at winning and Dirk will have a chance at the MVP this year...because Dirk Nowitzki is a better basketball player than Tim Duncan!
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