The NBA cares about a lot things, especially on giving back to the community. I give the league props for that, and I feel it’s important for a professional sports league to be involved in the community. However, the NBA does not care about the all-star game as it should by leaving too much say in the selection of the starters to the fans. This year, we were on the verge of witnessing one of the most horrific starting line-ups in the history of an all-star game. Fortunately, people realized Tracy McGrady had played in only 6 games this year. I wonder if it was his average of 3.2 PPG, or maybe the 0.8 RPG, that had the voters putting him as a top 2 guard in the West for most of the voting period. In the East, Allen Iverson actually won the race along with Dwyane Wade to start in the 2010 All-Star game. The guy retired a month into the year, then took about three weeks to sign on to a poor 76ers team, and he gets voted into the game as a starter. While Rajon Rondo, the league leader in steals, top 5 in assists/game, and arguably Boston’s MVP this year since  Paul Pierce and  Kevin Garnett have battled some injury, has to sit on the bench and watch Iverson play before he can step on the court.

I know, at least Rondo got a spot on the roster. However, Iverson’s starting spot takes up an automatic roster spot that will certainly leave out a very deserving player. Every year there are all-star snubs in every sport, I am not disagreeing with that. My problem is that players such as David Lee and Josh Smith clearly deserve a roster spot over a player like Allen Iverson. Since he got voted in as a starter, he can’t be left off the roster. Even though he made it in there by the fans’ vote, as a basketball fan, I don’t understand how people could actually vote this guy in. He was voted in last year too, while he was practically the 6th man for a poor Detroit Pistons team, and was constantly complaining about playing time. He’s clearly a popular player, and has had an outstanding career, but for the purposes of an All-Star game, I would like to see a starting line-up, and an entire roster, that is clearly deserving and picked objectively by people that actually appreciate the game of basketball, and reward players that truly deserve to be there after 3.5 months of a season.