NBA All-Star voting is broken.

            If you have been following basketball this season you know that a team that was not good last year, the Atlanta Hawks, are now the best team in basketball with the best record in their conference, at 37-8. You also know that they stretched a 19 game winning streak that ended in February.  They have a wide variety of players who each specialize in a distinct part of their system. Kyle Korver is their SG and is the first player in history to average over 90% from the free-throw line, 50% on field goals, and over 50% on three-point shooting. Steph Curry is leading All-Star voting and is well deserved to lead it, but people like Steph because of his shooting ability saying that he is the best shooter in the league at 90% free-throws, over 40% field goals, and 40% on three-point shots(ESPN.com). His shooting compared to Kyle Korver is cute. Korver has almost a 60% percent field goals the past ten games, while Curry just cracked 50%.  He torched one of the best defensive teams in my Chicago Bulls hitting 7 of 9 3 point shots. But Kyle Korver isn't even on the list for the All-Star voting, he didn't crack the top-ten with this great shooting. An aging injured Kobe Bryant got over 1.15 million votes and Korver didn't get much to any. But let’s stop talking about Korver, let's talk about his team. The Hawks are on fire right now and have great players like Jeff Teague the leader with 17.1 points per game, and Al Horford is averaging almost 18 points the last ten games with 8 rebounds. The whole team effort is amazing, Millsap is passing way more and letting other players shine for their unique abilities like DeMarre Carroll who is having a breakout season.

            That was a week ago and the All-Star rosters have already been decided. No Hawks players got the starting spots but 3 of them got into the reserves, Al Horford, Paul Millsap, and Jeff Teague. All 3 of which, got in only by the coaches votes. Jimmy Butler who is also having an astounding season and is the leading candidate for the Most Improved Player award also had to have been selected by the coaches because the people didn't pick him. A guy named Dwyane Wade got picked by the fans, even though he is not an exciting player and is 33. The Heat, the team Wade plays for is having a losing record being 26-33. So how is it fair that a player who is carrying a very good championship caliber team in the Chicago Bulls with Jimmy Butler, losing to an aging player who is aching and playing on a losing team in front of fans who don't even care anymore because LeBron James left? I think we all can agree that that's not right.

            Kevin Durant is one of my favorite players, unfortunately KD has been injured all of this season and has only played 22 games this season. He got in to the All-Star game and replaced an exciting player named Damian Lillard. Damian Lillard is 24 years old and plays for the Portland Trailblazers. In last year’s playoffs he hit a long three-pointer with 00.3 second left in the fourth quarter against the Houston Rockets. If he hadn't hit that shot the Blazers would be shut out from the second round of the playoffs again, but Lillard racked up his confidence and hit it. The crowd at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon went berserk, Lillard was tackled into a dog pile by his teammates, as the Blazers finally made it to the second round of the playoffs. As Damian held a mic and shouted "Rip CITY!" to the crowd he didn't know that he would become even better the following season. Lillard is averaging 21 points per game, 6 assists per game, and 5 rebounds per game, leading the Blazers to a record of 39-19 as of March 3rd .Damian was sure to have been rallied up to make it to this year’s NBA All-Star game but he got snubbed. He couldn't even make it to be a replacement player. Even KD thought that was unjust.

             Boogie Cousins is having fun in Sacramento even though his team is losing, he still is putting up massive numbers 24 PPG, 13 RPG, and 2 blocks per game(ESPN.com).DeMarcus 'Boogie' Cousins has been a fan-favorite with the Kings and loves it there. He also got to be on Team USA on the FIBA World Cup team last summer, stealing the show along with Anthony Davis. Meanwhile, a player named Kobe Bryant is injured and is likely to miss all of the season, even though he was selected to be an All-Star which he deserved. Does that mean Boogie can replace Kobe by being the replacement All-Star player for the West, well, we'll have to find out because right now the NBA is in a frenzy in preparation for the game. But Boogie must be spooked to be playing that well and only to become a replacement for the game, how good are the players? Some are better and some are a little worse. Like Blake Griffin, a fan's selection player who is averaging 22 PPG, and 7 RPG(ESPN.com). Griffin has already been a Slam Dunk champion and a NBA draft first pick player. How does a player who is not playing better than another player who does not have many awards get to the All-Star game in a blowout. You'll just have to ask the 700,000 people who voted for Blake.

              A week after I wrote the last sentence, Blake Griffin got injured, which means his replacement will be, Damian Lillard, the player I talked about earlier. I don't know how this happened, that everybody who got snubbed made it, I think it is crazy how lucky the NBA got. Now Adam Silver, the commissioner, does not have to explain to some reporters why MVP candidate Damian Lillard, who is leading a team to a 39-19 record is not in the All-Star Game. They caught a break, but next year the events that caused those players to make it will probably not happen, so will the NBA take out fan voting and not have to face the heat of how great players are getting snubbed, or will they get criticized by reporters, writers, bloggers, and people who aren't biased on choosing the same 'used to be good' player to make the All-Star game?

            I can change that by writing more and more, trying to get more page views and informing others of this problem. I’m also trying to find some e-mails of commentators and NBA writers that support this, like Jeff Van Gundy, or Bill Simmons (I don't know if he supports it). That's all I can do for now, because I don't have people that can spread the word like other bloggers have. I hope I have made you think about his problem, and I may have even convinced you to want to stop this. All stats are from ESPN.com, NBA.com, Basketball-Reference.com.
                                                                           --KSP--