The Popularity Contest: A.K.A-NBA All-Star Game

The National Basketball League’s All-Star Game is a thrilling, high scoring basketball game including the biggest names the league has to offer. But are all of these players really the BEST players in the league?

Popularity over Statistics

The fans of the NBA do their own voting on the players which ends up deciding who will be playing on the big stage of the all-star game. Twenty four players total between the eastern and western conferences will be voted in. Obviously, the best players in the league will become the favorites among thousands of people across the country. But what if they aren’t as good as they have been in the past? Does their name or what they have done in previous years still make them deserving of the title “all-star”? Absolutely not. Over the past few years players have been getting wrongly snubbed from the all-star game.

This is Bradley Beal. He is one of the 2 biggest all-star game snubs. Bradley this season is averaging 29.2 PPG which is good for 4th IN ALL OF BASKETBALL. On top of this, he is also averaging 4.5 RPG and 6.3 APG. Beal’s PER (player efficiency rating), which is a closely looked at stats in todays game, is 23.12 which is good for 14th in the NBA. These stats very clearly show that he is certainly on the same level as just about any all-star. There are a few reason why people argue that Beal is being snubbed. First, he plays for the Wizards. Playing in Washington, they do not get near the media coverage of almost every other teams. They also aren’t playing in many, if not any, nationally televised games. Second, people argue the snub is right because his team is boasting a poor record of 17-32. But is this really his problem? His statistics show that he is doing everything he can to carry his team, he just doesn’t have the talent around him in order to be a better team. https://twitter.com/HoopDistrictDC/status/1222519771603898368

Devin Booker is right there with Mr. Beal in the unfair snubs of the upcoming all-star game weekend. Like Beal, Booker can score with the absolute best of them. Booker is averaging 26.8 PPG which is 10th in the entire league. Along with this, Devin is shooting at an all-time clip for his PPG rather than just firing up shot after shot. He is shooting an astounding 50.6% from the field, 36.8% from deep, and 91.7% from the FT line. Like Beal, Devin Booker plays out in Phoenix where also lies the lack of media attention and participation in nationally televised games. They also have a not-so-good record of 20-30. But again, you can only do so much with the lack of teammates to support you.

Bradley Beal not being selected makes him the highest PPG scorer in the history of the NBA to not make the all-star game. That is just simply not right. How the all-star players are selected NEEDS to be changed. At the end of the day, it comes down to not having the best 24 players at the all-star game because of popularity.