Barring any injuries, Allen Iverson will start for the Eastern Conference in the All Star Game on Feb. 14th, 2010.
I can’t believe this is the case. I mean he played 3 games off the bench for the Grizzlies before complaining to the team and media, going on a leave of absence, retiring, and finally being resigned by the 76ers in December.
His numbers for the season are 14.6 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 4.3 APG, 0.6 SPG, and 2.5 TO per game while shooting 45.3% from the field, 37.5% from three, and 80.2% from the free throw line. An all-star? I don’t think so. 
From a Fantasy Basketball perspective, according to Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball rankings he is not even a top 50 point guard in the NBA. He is ranked 236 overall and 182 overall when looking at his per game averages.
All three reserve guards easily could have started over him, and several guards that are not even on the All-Star team, including Bucks’ rookie Brandon Jennings, Toronto guard Jose Calderon, and Bobcats’ guard Raymond Felton. If Iverson was not voted in by the fans, I am confident that he would not even be on the team.
This situation brings to light several flaws with the All-Star balloting (not just the NBA, the MLB has the same problem). There needs to be some sort of rule to determine who can be on the ballot. For instance, if you retire from the NBA, your name should be removed (Iverson). Also, more practically, you should only be an all-star if you played in more than half of your teams’ games. It is an all-star game, not a popularity contest, there is no way that Iverson should have received more than 1.2 millions votes. This number tells me that people either don’t care and just want Iverson in the game, or they don’t pay attention to the NBA at all and just go by the names they know from past success.
Iverson was not the only player receiving abnormally high votes that should not have. Tracy McGrady was almost voted into the game, and he only played in 6 games (none as a starter).
What are your thoughts? Do you think Iverson deserves to be in the All-Star game?
[Photo Credit: wassupsports.wordpress.com]
I don’t like Iverson, but I think that the All-Star game is for the people. Although I don’t believe in having Iverson participating in the event, if the fans want to see him, then he should be able to play.
Listen, this happens every year. Sure, not as dramatic as a case as this year, but everyone argues this every year. Many people believe that the All-Star game should be for the best players in the league. Fine. But, why? These games consist of 300 + points on the board, so I am surely not seeing the best players in the league play at their best. These guys are having just as much, if not more fun than the audience is watching them play.
Only ten players are voted into the game. I say, let that rule stand. The rest of the players that ‘deserve’ to go will (Horford over Lee this year…seriously?).
Anyway, until the All-Star Game has some stellar play from both teams on both ends of the court during the whole game, I believe it is a game for the fans and not the “most deserving players”. Those players will be recognized at the end of the season on the First, Second, or Third Team All-NBA team.
To me there is a difference between the Iverson situation and what happens most seasons. Most years, a starter is named that is still an all-star, but not the best at the position. But this season, Iverson does not deserve to be an all-star at all.
I understand that the fans want to see certain players, but this is just bad. For example, do I think that Kevin Garnett should be starting for the Eastern Conference, absolutely not. Chris Bosh easily should be starting for the Eastern Conference (averaging 24PPG & 11RPG), but I understand that people want to see Kevin Garnett and at least he is somewhat deserving of being on the team. He probably shouldn’t be an all-star either (David Lee, like you mentioned, got snubbed), but at least he is closer to all-star numbers than Iverson and at least he has been playing all season.
I have no problem with the players having fun either, but they do get paid to be on the team and I feel they should be somewhat deserving, and Iverson is not even close to being deserving.
When it comes down to it, like you said it is a game for the fans and the best players will get honored at the end of the season as apart of the All-NBA teams. At least, McGrady got beat out at the last second by Nash, otherwise the All-Star game would have been considered an even bigger joke and even less people would watch it.