We’re officially in All-Star game season, with the Pro Bowl this past Sunday (the same day the NHL All-Star Game would have been played had there been no lockout), and the NBA All-Star Game set to take place in about two weeks.
Despite the fact that these games have served as a source of entertainment for sports fans for decades, many of them have recently come under fire for various reasons, such as a lack of competitive play, the voting process used to select the All-Stars, the type of players selected and when such games are held during the season. Like many of the critics of these games, I have always found them difficult to appreciate. But, I do not necessarily disagree with how the players play or when they play, just how they are chosen to play.
The main problems with All-Star games are the voting processes involved. In most of these processes, the fans play a large role, if not the total role, in deciding who gets chosen as an All-Star.
In the NBA and MLB, they have the full power to choose the starters in the games. In the NBA, the reserves are chosen by the coaches, while in the MLB, the reserves are chosen by a mixture of the players and managers, with the final player for each team chosen by the fans from a selection of players chosen by the managers of each All-Star team.
The NHL’s system is even wackier, in that fans vote for six players while the NHL selects the rest, and then those players are subsequently chosen by two captains in a fantasy sports-like draft, regardless of conference.
The NFL has the system that makes the most sense, as the coaches, the players, and the fans do the voting, with each group’s vote counting for one-third of the total. This way of voting is best because it allows fans to have a say while still allowing for the people that know the skills of the players best—the players themselves and the coaches—to also have a say.
With the way the NBA and MLB hold the voting, fans are fully responsible for who gets to start, giving them more power than the better informed players and coaches who only get to pick the reserves. The NHL game gives the league too much power over the players, coaches, and fans who could provide a better small market to big market ratio than the high rating-seeking and thus big-market player seeking NHL.
The reason the voting matters is that one of the major aspects by which players are judged is how many All-Star games they have made; go to any professional athlete’s Wikipedia page and one of the first statistics you will see is how many times they have been an All-Star. Something of so much importance cannot be left up to the fans, many of whom vote for the All-Star game without having seen many games or players.
Fan voting also benefits players who are more exciting but less talented, have been around for a long time, or have been in big markets for a long time, as these players tend to be more famous. Therefore, players like Kevin Garnett get to start undeservedly, while more deserving players like Tyson Chandler and Brook Lopez are left being reserves (as is the case with Chandler) or left out of the game altogether (as is the case with Lopez).
One could make the argument that the coaches and players still have a chance to vote the more deserving players into the game in basketball and baseball with their control over the reserve voting, but a problem arises from this argument. The problem is that there are only so many spots on these All-Star teams that even one or two bad choices by the fans means that it is tough for the players and coaches to get every deserving player onto the team. Thus, a mistake by the fans, which tends to happen with at least one or two players, means two snubs. There is no guarantee that players and coaches would do a better job than the fans, but with their expertise it is certainly likely, especially if they are not allowed to vote for players on their own team like fans are.
On the surface, such a problem seems miniscule. Technically, All-Star games are just exhibition games that were made for the fans to enjoy. Still, the fact is that the number of All-Star appearances has come to play a big role in how people view the success of a player’s career. Therefore, the proper steps need to be taken to ensure that All-Star voting is more of a talent contest than a popularity contest.
