Reynolds: NBA Players Shouldn’t Vote for All-Star Game

NBA players are not taking seriously their job of voting for All-Star teams and their ballots should be revoked, according to Tim Reynolds of the AP, writing for Yahoo!Sports. Reynolds cites aberrations in 2020 player voting results as evidence.

After comparing the NBA mid-season event to the All-Star games of other sports, Reynolds gets to the heart of the matter:

[Kyrie] Irving or [Kemba] Walker can be a legit debate, but some player voting was comical.

- Zion Williamson got two votes, which on the surface doesn’t look so bad; after all, he was the No. 1 overall pick last season. Consider, however, that the two votes were cast before he made his NBA debut on Wednesday.

- Tacko Fall - the 7-foot-5 Boston center who has spent most of his rookie season in the G League - got seven votes from players. He has appeared in four games.

- Justise Winslow, who has missed most of Miami’s season, got one vote. So did Heat teammate KZ Okpala, which is one more vote than he has NBA points.

- Thanasis Antetokounmpo got six player votes. Kostas Antetokounmpo got five, a big number for someone who hasn’t scored yet this season. Perhaps players got confused. Perhaps those votes were supposed to go to Giannis. Who knows.

- Bol Bol got a vote. He hasn’t played yet. Miye Oni got a vote. He’s made three scoreless appearances. The list of ‘this-guy-got-votes?’ goes on and on and on and on.

Reynolds offers that the record number of players receiving votes this season (292) indicates that the issue is worsening. He makes his solution clear:

It’s time for the NBA to take the vote away from the players. It’s clear too many don’t want the job.

Do you agree with Reynolds’ suggestion, or is the player vote roughly analogous to fan voting, which always involves some level of oddity?