Comments on: Yao Ming again voted an All-Star starter, cue outrage

By: celebritybodyguards

celebritybodyguards — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:01:21 +0000

If there were a simple “minimum number of games played out of the first 40 games in a season” rule that would automatically include or eliminate ANY active roster NBA player from the ballot, it would then be as simple as a webmaster just removing a guy’s name such as Yao from the choices on the website after he is mathematically eliminated from reaching the minimum. Sort of like baseball has a “magic number” to determine IF a team has a chance to make the playoffs by calculating simple things such as games remaining and wins by them vs losses by other teams chasing them in the standings.

If there is one thing the Chinese voters understand, it’s MATH. However, the US based NBA and it’s website counts on the “hits” and traffic flowing in from China to bolster it’s own rankings among top sites around the world for advertising dollars just the way that Facebook makes billions while not charging it’s users to be members but charging advertisers who pay for space on the site based on traffic and users that see their products. So, if you eliminate Yao Ming from the online ballot, then, you eliminate China and the millions of multiple ballot stuffing citizens that use robots to flood the online voting system on the NBA’s website for the All-Star game ballot.

It’s not about the “fans” of the NBA here in America that actually ATTEND the games in person and watch these games here on USA television that the NBA caters to. It’s the global market for merchandising and sales of NBA related items online worldwide.

So, perhaps the could just have the default “winner” be the 2nd place vote getter in the category for starting center that automatically wins. Which would be even easier to count. In this case, it would go to Pau Gasol or Andrew Bynum depending on whom was listed as a “center” on the ballot.

No other Western conference center would be popular among the general fan base of the NBA as a Laker I’m quite sure.

By the way, both Blake Griffin AND Kevin Love should be on the team ahead of Carmelo Anthony based on statistics this season and their impact on the game, their team, and the positive buzz they both have generated. Griffin is very charismatic and will be an All-Star for many years to come in this league. Love is having an amazing season and does incredible things for a guy his size with a lack of quickness or leaping ability.

Any other suggestions on how to “fix” the voting for this game?

By: fouldwimmerlaik

fouldwimmerlaik — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 06:52:47 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, Kurt.

Still, it all boils down on the process of choosing the candidates in the ballot. As you succinctly put it, it is the timing of when the ballots are chosen.

By: Kurt Helin

Kurt Helin — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 05:06:34 +0000

The ballot for the All-Stars is put together before the season starts. That always leads to problems. You would think in a digital age they could do it later, but that’s not the case. Before the season started it was thought Yao would be back (and he was for five games). The flaw is the timing of when the ballots are chosen.

By: fouldwimmerlaik

fouldwimmerlaik — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:59:20 +0000

The premise of this exercise is to find out who they want to play in the All-Star Game, right?

The thing is, Yao has already been out for the season EVEN BEFORE THE VOTING STARTED.

Given that, Yao shouldn’t be one of the options to choose from in the first place. Just a waste of vote since everyone knew from the start that he won’t be able to play. The slot could have been given to someone deserving AND available.

Now, if he was injured during the process of voting, then it would just have been unfortunate for Yao and his fans.

By: mpleafan

mpleafan — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 03:48:26 +0000

i tells ya that by the end of this decade, all all star games will b like nhls.

By: kindasporty

kindasporty — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:57:47 +0000

Personally I think if the fans want to see someone in the All Star Game then it doesn’t matter if other people thinks he “deserves” it or not. If the voters think he does then he does. The problem isn’t with the voters, the problem is with people who use how many All Star Games a player started as a measuring stick for their career success. All that means was the player was popular. I think that if the majority of the fans want to vote Yao Ming then by all means vote for him and don’t worry about if he’s the best player or not.