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The NBA has become a global franchise over the past decade with athletes originating from more countries than ever before. Globalization combined with free online voting has permitted nationalistic pride to become a major determinant in the starting lineup of the all-star game.

Some international selections are justifiable while others are controversial selections made almost exclusively based on nationality rather than basketball achievements.

Not to diminish the impressive rookie season he is having, but if Yi Jianlian can get 300,000 WRITE-IN votes by the Chinese (and to a much lesser extent the Milwaukee faithful) without being an all-star calibre player, how many votes will Yi get when he's on the ballot?

In order to correct for this inequity I propose that the NBA amend its voting policy such that votes be collected into one of two pools based on where the votes originate from: North America or Overseas. Players will then be ranked in each of the two pools at their respective position for a combined ranking. The top guards (2), forwards (2), and center (1) of each conference are voted in based on highest combined rankings.

Properly assorting votes into the NA or Overseas pool shouldn't be difficult as the origin of an online vote can easily be tracked based on the individual's IP address.

As an example to simply show what the rankings might look like, the expected rankings of the top 8 voted forwards in the Eastern Conference:

Kevin Garnett: #1 (NA votes), #2 (Overseas votes): Overall #1 (1.5 avg)
LeBron James: #2 (NA votes), #3 (Overseas votes): Overall #2 (2.5)
Chris Bosh: #3 (NA votes), #5 (Overseas votes): Overall #3 (4)
Paul Pierce: #4 (NA votes), #6 (Overseas votes): Overall #4 (5)
Yi Jianlian: #10 (NA votes), #1 (Overseas votes): Overall #5 (5.5)
Caron Butler: #5 (NA votes), #7 (Overseas votes): Overall #6 (6)
Hedo Turkuglo: #9 (NA votes), #4 (Overseas votes): Overall #7 (6.5)
Tayshaun Prince: #6 (NA votes), #8 (Overseas votes): Overall #8 (7)

Note that I listed Turkuglo & Yi #9 & #10 in North American votes respectively because players such as Rashard Lewis and Josh Smith have ~150,000 votes and are likely ranked higher by domestic fans.

Even if Yi had 2 million votes from Overseas - placing him #1 in overall votes - he would still not be starting as those votes have no effect on his overall ranking. He is already #1 in international ranking.

This system helps to diminish the effects of a skewed 'popular vote' by highly populated countries to that of a more balanced 50/50 'electoral vote' decided by fans spanning many nations amongst the two pools. Players who are only recognized in one region will not be voted in as a starter until their game is recognized globally (i.e. domestically and overseas).

Creating two voting pools is relatively easy to introduce and helps to return integrity to the selection of NBA all-star starters.

I don

Sorry no offense but this is the dumbest post I have seen for a while

OK if a 9 ppg player gets most of the votes ignore the voting to some extend... but if you follow your logic maybe a player from a large market like NY or LA has also the edge... maybe the NBA should divide the votes to states also???

Get real and don't forget that the Allstar game is just a game... maybe a Internationals versus Domestics would solve your problem... gues which side would win???
(Hint: Not flashy high flying ones but fundamentally sound ones)

This is a terrible system.

Most of the votes come from North America.

Now if Yi is number 1 overseas at the 300k votes, and is #10 in the US with 20k votes, he could beat out Paul Pierce, who might be #3(500k votes) in the US but #12(5k) in overseas votes.

If there are a lot of internationa6 in thel players at a position, a player like Kevin Garnett could be overwhelmingly #1 in the US, but #5 or #6 overseas.... and end up not starting even though he'd have overwhelmingly the most votes in the US.

bstein14 wrote:This is a terrible system.

Most of the votes come from North America.

Now if Yi is number 1 overseas at the 300k votes, and is #10 in the US with 20k votes, he could beat out Paul Pierce, who might be #3(500k votes) in the US but #12(5k) in overseas votes.

If there are a lot of internationa6 in thel players at a position, a player like Kevin Garnett could be overwhelmingly #1 in the US, but #5 or #6 overseas.... and end up not starting even though he'd have overwhelmingly the most votes in the US.

Whats the problem if most of the votes come from North America?
Why is you voting for a US player not nationalistic but the reserve holds true? I more than sure that most of the guys complaining about the system never wasted a vote for Yao, Pau or Dirk

parso15 wrote:Sorry no offense but this is the dumbest post I have seen for a while

in you 5 total days here on realgm?

MagicalMan wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



in you 5 total days here on realgm?

I don't want to crash your world but this is NOT the only forum on the net

Funny idea.

where do you guys access voting results. all I can find are crappy articles talking about stars votes

Pinot love wrote:where do you guys access voting results. all I can find are crappy articles talking about stars votes

http://www.insidehoops.com/all-star-vot ... ults.shtml

The only problem with this years starting lineup is TMac and he is not an international player, though I am sure he is there because he won over some of Yao's fans.

corona wrote:-= original quote snipped =-


http://www.insidehoops.com/all-star-vot ... ults.shtml

thank you!

It depends on what you want

Either the game is about who the fans of the nba what to see: In that case keep it a popular vote and if say some 9ppg player gets in deal with it, its a global game.

Or have it being the best players that year and make it a coaches vote or something along those lines and cut out the public.

Either way the game is a freaking joke just like all of the All-Star games in sports.

How do you guys figure your AS voting? It's the 2007-2008 all-stars, but we vote before we get to see who the true all-stars are. I figure it's best to take the last half of last season in to heaviest account and give some weight to the first quarter of the season, though that's when teams are just figuring themselves out. Considering this, who is and isn't an all-star at this point?

Isn't:

Arenas (4th in G voting)
Wade (1st in G voting)
McGrady (2nd in G voting)
Shaq (2nd in Center voting)
Yi (5th in fowards voting, ahead of Caron Butler, Turk, JSmooth)
Terry
Stackhouse (He and Terry lead Roy %-6 )

Yao? (ahead of Amare, Kaman, Al Jefferson and Chandler?)

Is:

Paul
Boozer
Roy
Caron Butler
Ginobili

Kaman?
Al Jefferson?
Bynum?


Your 2007-2008 All-Stars:

East

PG: Billups, Kidd
SG: Ray Allen, Redd
SF: Lebron, Butler
PF: KG, Bosh
C: Dwight, Sheed

+ Pierce and Turk/Josh Smith/Rip

West:

PG: Paul, Nash
SG: Kobe, Ginobili
SF: Dirk, Melo/Marion
PF: Duncan, Boozer
C: Amare, Camby

+ Roy and AI/Tony Parker/Baron Davis/Kaman/Al Jeff/Bynum and Melo/Marion depending on your player type preference.

The coaches and media should only vote, it's ridiculous that a guy like T-Mac is going to be voted in by the fans with guys like Steve Nash, Chris Paul and Brandon Roy behind him.

T-Mac has been injured forever and his team is 16-17. The three guys that I mentioned are a big part of their teams success.

And Yi is ahead of guys like Caron Butler and Josh Smith? No need to say anything about that. CRAY-ZEE.

The media and coaches should be the only voters.

I really hope people vote Nash in over McGrady. Not only for Nash, but so Roy gets in. The coaches won't vote McGrady in over Roy, but they will vote Nash in over him for sure.

All Star voting is fine. If kids want to see Yi, then so be it. Coaches select alternates and if you're good enough to be an all star you will.

Jules Winnfield wrote:All Star voting is fine. If kids want to see Yi, then so be it. Coaches select alternates and if you're good enough to be an all star you will.

Not necessarily. The kids wanted to see Lebron in '04, but got Jamaal Magloire instead.