Every year, the biggest stars of the NBA gather for an action-packed weekend, taking place during the midseason All-Star break.  The weekend consists of fan-favorite events, such as the dunk contest, three-point shootout, and skills challenge.  In the dunk contest, a few of the most athletic players take turns doing impressive dunks, and a team of judges decides who had the best one.  Players take turns shooting three-pointers at racks set up with 25 balls in the three-point shootout, and whoever hits the most wins.  In the skills competition, players showcase their dribbling, passing, and shooting in a head to head race.  However, the main attraction of the weekend is the NBA All-Star game.  

“I think the All-Star game is a great event.  It allows the best players in the game to showcase their skills and put on an entertaining night,” said sophomore Max Baum.  

Last year, the All-Star game drew in almost six million viewers.

Fans from across the world vote for who they believe deserves to play in the game.   However, some people have a problem with the way players get selected for this event.  

“Some NBA fans are not educated enough about the entire league to vote for who the best players are.  Most are just biased,” said freshman Zach Tessler.  

This can sometimes prove to be true, as the general public has not been watching enough basketball to determine who the best players are.  Often, you can find people posting who they voted for.   For example, Derrick Rose, a point guard on the New York Knicks, is currently seventh in voting.  Rose is a former MVP, and is one of the most loved players currently in the league.  While he has revived his career in a big way with the Knicks, he is currently injured and has neither good enough stats nor enough games played to qualify a selection.  This issue was highlighted in the 2020 All-Star voting, where fan favorites Alex Caruso and Tacko Fall both garnered around a million votes each, despite neither of them being anywhere close to All-Star level.  

“The NBA needs to change the All-Star game voting system, it has turned into a popularity contest,” said freshman Ryan Harris Krainman.  

Fortunately, fan voting only counts for 50% of the final decision, with both the votes of current players and a media panel accounting for 25%.  Regardless, some people still believe the way players get selected to the game should be changed.

On Jan. 6, the NBA released the first fan returns of the 2022 All-Star voting.  The voting is split into four categories: Western Conference backcourt, Western Conference Frontcourt, and the same two categories for the Eastern Conference.  Stephen Curry leads all NBA players, with 2,584,623 votes.  He joins Lebron James, Kevin Durant, and Giannis Antetekounmpo as the only players with over two million votes.  Also, in his first All-Star selection listed at guard, Demar Derozan has taken his career to new heights in Chicago.  Derozan leads a surprisingly good Bulls team, which sits at the top of the Eastern Conference.  He is averaging a career high 26.5 points per game, and has shown his clutch shooting by hitting multiple game winning buzzer beaters.  Another player getting a lot of votes is Tyler Herro, who seems to have rediscovered his success from the bubble in Orlando two seasons ago.  The Heat guard does not start, but has averaged a ridiculous 20.6 points and 3.9 assists off the bench.  Herro is in the conversation for many of the end of season awards already, such as Sixth Man of the Year.  He also hopes to add an All-Star selection to his resume.

While some players attract more votes than deserved, others are not getting the attention they deserve such as Fred Vanvleet.  Always a reliable shooter for Toronto, the Drake look-alike signed an $85 million mega contract during the off-season, widely regarded as a gross overpay.  However, Vanvleet has completely flipped the script, helping the Raptors to a winning record after an extremely disappointing 2020-2021 season.  He has averaged 22 points, 6.7 assists and 5 rebounds, making him deserving of a trip to Cleveland.

In February, the All-Star break will provide us with great entertainment from the top performers this season.  Hopefully, the NBA is able to make sure that only the league’s best make it onto the court.