The NBA released its first set of All-Star balloting results today, filled with the usual complete non-surprises. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Yao Ming and Kobe Bryant lead at their positions. Dwight Howard is the overall vote leader, which has as much to do with the dearth of centers in the East -- Samuel Dalembert (!) is No. 2 in voting -- than Superman's extensive fan base.The scenario everyone feared, though, is looking possible. For the second forward slot in the East, Kevin Garnett leads New Jersey's Yi Jianlian by about 130,000 votes. It's a big enough margin for now, but the fact that Yi leads Chris Bosh (by 80,000) and Paul Pierce (by 200,000) has to be giving David Stern a stomachache. I mean, it's great that China has helped make basketball the most popular sport in the world. But Yi starting the All-Star Game over KG, Bosh or Pierce? That'd be a domestic disaster. And incredibly hilarious.
In other somewhat discouraging news, it appears Allen Iverson will be an Eastern starter once again. Chris Paul's lead over Tracy McGrady for second among Western guards is a tenuous 60,000-vote spread. Rafer Alston has ridden Yao's gravy train to almost as many votes as Brandon Roy, while deserving Yi-mate Devin Harris is behind ... Luke Ridnour. Man, All-Star voting is weird.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
All-Star voting is a joke. They should just remove the fan voting portion and let the coaches choose everyone.
Yi is better than the Finals MVP, eh? ...maybe at ping pong.
Oh, one more thing.
The Chinese should petition the coaches to add Sun Yue as a backup guard for the Western All Stars. I can't believe the NBA would have forgotten such an impact player! It's a true travesty.
ping pong... that's not racist at all
Look at the Olympics table tennis results before claiming racism, friend.
excellent point, grover. making assumptions about a member of a particular ethnic group because of qualities of other members of the race in no way qualifies as racism: simply harmless racial stereotyping! which is, obviously, a far cry from racism.
i love that logic! by the way, did you know that i'm a better swimmer than every non-american? a quick look at the olympic swimming results will render my drinking, smoking, and complete and utter lack of experience swimming completely moot.
what was that? i couldn't hear you over the sound of how awesome i am at swimming.
and what's even better, the ping pong quip is light years away from saying something really insulting like, "yi is better than the reigning finals mvp... maybe at driving at 20 miles an hour with his blinker on."
oh, wait a minute...