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Add to this most unusual and unpredictable NBA season another bizarre wrinkle: an NBA All-Star Game, a game players themselves shy away from playing, which also in a few key cases feels particularly difficult to properly assess when we choose. those heading to Atlanta.
For those members of the media who were offered to vote for All-Star Game starters – myself included – 10 names just weren’t enough to make it seem like every worthy player finished on your ballot . The process resembled a preview of the NBA Awards voting at the end of the season, when the excruciating process of properly separating the game stars from the All-NBA first team to the second and third – plus MVP, DPOY, ROY, and other awards. – often feels like a dead end situation.
This time around, my All-Star ballot, which included two backcourt and three frontcourt players per conference, looked like this:
Eastern Conference: Bradley Beal, Trae Young, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid.
Western Conference: Steph Curry, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, Kawhi Leonard.
This makes my ballot exactly the same as the NBA rookie’s, minus one player and one tiebreaker: I had Young over Kyrie Irving, and I had Doncic in front of Damian Lillard, both tied in the three-level media / player. / fan vote. Lillard, who performed better in media and player voting, lost the tiebreaker because Doncic got more fan votes.
I get the lure for those who felt Lillard deserved the starting nod on Doncic. And, again, leaving some of these players off those rosters feels bad. There are too many deserving stars in the NBA today to fit into a 1-10 ranking system.
And yes, Lillard’s Portland team continue to shine in large part because of their individual stardom, and the Doncic Mavs have underperformed. But that’s not an MVP award, and the distinction matters. It’s all about individual celebrity – singular excellence – and for me Luka is just getting ahead of Dame.
Lillard’s 29.8 / 4.4 / 7.7 is a predictable excellent season. But Doncic has, despite his team’s struggles, put together a LeBron 29.1 / 8.6 / 9.4 this season. And just watching him play – the visual test of greatness, even against incredible players like Damian Lillard – makes it clear to me that no All-Star Game is complete without Doncic in front and center.
Then there’s the Kyrie Irving selection. For me, it’s simple: I think Trae Young is a better player than Kyrie Irving. If you can be biased towards a certain star, the opposite can also be true. I find Irving as distracting as a teammate because he’s dangerous, as much hyped as he is heroic.
Yes, he is extremely talented. Yep, he’s awesome. Yes, he’s an All-Star. But the same goes for a lot of players, including Young.
There’s also that uncomfortable voting caveat, a caveat that you can’t and shouldn’t bring to the MVP vote but that plays a part in an All-Star Game: a hybrid of power and sympathy – with pieces of what you want a star to be thrown in to a good extent. A celebration of the game (ASG) is slightly different from a cold-eyed assessment of a player’s individual greatness (MVP, All-NBA teams). And here Kyrie fails.
He was less than a reliable teammate. Sure, he can call out as many members of the NBA media as he wants, but in a close case, he’s not sure it is in his favor when some of those members vote for the All-Star Game. . Did I leave it on my ballot because of this comment? No. Did that comment remind me of his role as a teammate and the lackluster way he used his power as a star? That he forced himself out of a Cleveland Championship team, was less than a great leader in Boston, and continued that form early in Brooklyn? It did, and it got me thinking.
Also, this is the All-Star game, not the “Some-Times-A-Star-When-I-Feel-Like-Playing” game.
And while Irving’s 27.7 / 4.7 / 5.6 and 42.7% from 3-pointers and 52.9% from field testify to another great season, I think Young has been the best. player. It’s not just his 26.5 / 3.8 / 9.3, it’s the fact that his efforts to try and lure the Hawks into the playoffs or his play-in streak aren’t helped with help from Kevin Durant and James Harden.
Speaking of which, I had Harden higher on my list of Eastern Conference guards. He would have gotten a nod before Irving if there was more space. Zach LaVine also had a long look.
The others are obvious. LeBron, Embiid and Jokic have some real MVP cases so far this season. Beal and Steph play slick basketball. Giannis and Kawhi forces of nature for their respective teams.
All of this leaves us, despite players’ understandable frustration with the game itself, exactly what the All-Star Game is: a keen-eyed focus – fights and all – on the hoops, pairing, and a harvest of. players worthy of celebration and debate.
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