NBA Players Did a Worse Job Voting For All-Stars Than the Fans Did

The NBA All-Star voting sham is over for the year. The votes have been tallied. The starters have been named. Now it’s time to look at the process that was used to keep fans from voting in an undeserving player like Zaza Pachulia. Guess what? Players are just as bad as fans.

324 NBA players voted for this year’s All-Star teams. There were no unanimous picks. Just 198 players out of 324 voted for LeBron James. Kevin Durant only got 170 votes. Russell Westbrook? 167. If legitimate All-Stars can’t get even two-thirds of their peers to vote for them, what’s the point?

Teammates or players themselves voted for ridiculously undeserving players like Minnesota’s John Lucas III who has appeared in 5 games this season or San Antonio’s Bryn Forbes who has appeared in 15 games. Blake Griffin got just 8 votes. Seth Curry got 3.

12 players on the Denver Nuggets received at least one vote, including Malik Beasley, Juan Hernangomez, Darrell Arthur, and Mike Miller. Say what you want about Mike Miller’s long and distinguished career, but I think someone on Denver went through and voted for all of his teammates.

The NBA accomplished what they wanted to accomplish by incorporating player and media voting – despite Zaza Pachulia’s 19 votes – but its clear the players take this no more seriously than the fans. Players either abstained, didn’t care, or voted for their friends or themselves. Who can blame them? The NBA might as well just go back to the original voting format and let fans see whatever freakshow they want.