The NBA Hangtime Blogtable question posed to the panel of writers Wednesday, January 13 was:
There’s one more week to vote before All-Star starters are announced on TNT. Give me one player in the East and one player in the West who need (and deserve) a late push from fans to make the starting five.
For the most part the panel was on the same page and in the few cases they weren’t it was understandable. For instance David Aldridge is located in Washington, so his suggestion of John Wall is neither unexpected, nor impractical. And while Lang Whitaker went on his own tangent for Paul Millsap, I can’t knock that suggestion either (although Al Horford may be more deserving of late).
Where I do take umbrage was this one specific response:
Ian Thomsen, NBA.com: Toronto is No. 2 in the East and the host of the All-Star Game next month, so how have the Canadians failed to vote for DeMar DeRozan (or Kyle Lowry) ahead of Kyrie Irving, who has played in only 10 games for Cleveland? In the West, the fans have it exactly right, especially in their treatment of Kobe Bryant. He deserves to start in his final season. But for those who feel no sentiment or respect, I suppose the next-best choice should be Kawhi Leonard.
Of note: I didn’t bold any of the words used in Thomsen’s response, that is exactly how it appears.
I’ve made no secret I didn’t feel it was necessary for Adam Silver to spoon feed the fans suggesting they vote Kobe Bryant into the game. And with all due respect to Mr. Thomsen I’m sure RR readers would agree I often err on the side of using sentiment over logic. And, if you are going to use words like “respect” then isn’t it disrespectful not to have both Draymond Green and Kawhi Leonard starting over Kobe Bryant given their growth and production this season?
Yet the part of his response I took major exception to was his blaming Canadians for not voting on par with the rest of the World to ensure the Raptors backcourt starts. Moreover this suggests it’s up to Toronto and Canada to out maneuver the marketing and branding machines of the championship winning Miami Heat and brand of LeBron James. Let’s face it, both Dwyane Wade and Kyrie Irving benefit from their James association. Wade has years of Christmas games, All-Star appearances, title runs, weekly National TV exposure etc and Irving has parachuted into Wade’s role now that James has returned to Cleveland. Irving also won All-Star Game MVP two years ago (2014).
I’m infuriated by this suggestion that if neither Kyle Lowry nor DeMar DeRozan start it all falls on the country. Is this the start of the free agent summer campaign to DeRozan? Canadians never voted you into an All-Star game, but we will make sure you start.
Why is there no such judgement toward the Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics or any other Eastern Conference fan base? Sure I get that Toronto is hosting, but the Raptors and Bulls are the only teams who have voted both their back courts into the top ten and I’d say Butler and Rose are definitely better known in the US and Worldwide.
To wit, the Raptors and Bulls are the only teams with 4 players listed among the top 25 EC vote receivers (10 guards/15 frontcourt). The Cavaliers and Heat are next in line with 3 of their stars on the leader board.
Looking at this another way, Jonas Valanciunas and DeMarre Carroll presence on the leader board is somewhat surprising and lends itself to offer an argument regarding how loyal the fan base is given the amount of time they’ve missed due to injury.
Plus where is the love for Nicolas Batum who is listed as a shooting guard and other than points per game is out performing all Eastern players at his position including Jimmy Butler and DeMar DeRozan. I mean if you are going to reprimand a fan base shouldn’t the Hornets get some flak for voting Jeremy Lin into the top 10 over Batum? That in itself proves how ridiculous the premise is to blame a fan base because Lin’s worldwide recognition can most assuredly be credited for his top 8 placement.
At least the majority of the writers in the blog table, including interestingly enough Chicago writer Steve Aschburner feel Lowry is the most deserving to get the start.
Today (Thursday, Jan. 14) the third and final All-Star fan voting update will be announced with Monday January 18 11:59:59 pm EST being the cut off to submit your votes.
Based on the copious retweets I received in an hour last night on this subject I’m guessing there are many others who agree with me that Mr. Thomsen was wrong regarding the “sentiment and respect” of fans especially in Canada and Toronto. It may not have been his intention when he responded to the round table to indirectly spark a fan base into action, but I say let’s use his words as motivation and make our point via the vote.
The fastest and simplest way to vote is to tweet:
Kyle Lowry #NBAVote
and/or
DeMar DeRozan #NBAVote
However there are various ways you can get your ten daily votes in which can be found in special sections of the NBA and Raptors websites.
Post Script: Mr Thomsen if your actual intention was to inspire, motivate or cajole Canadians, Torontonians or Raptors fans into voting, my thanks for giving me a vehicle to aid in effecting that result.
