Jeremy Lin, All-Star starter?
Don’t rule it out.
The first balloting totals were announced Thursday, and Lin is running a close third in the Western Conference backcourt behind Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul.
Lin has 298, 318 votes, just over 55,000 short of Paul’s total.
The closest battle for a starting spot in the Eastern Conference frontcourt, where fans can pick three starters from among forwards and centers. LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony have monstrous leads for two of the spots, and the third spot is a race between Boston’s Kevin Garnett (218,246) and Miami’s Chris Bosh (210,724).
In the West, the frontcourt leaders are Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard and Blake Griffin, with no one else within 100,000 votes.
All of the vote totals are after the jump …
Its rather sad lamenting the fact that the all-star game votes sometimes have little to do with actual player skill and production and is more so a measuring stick for a player’s popularity. Even more sad is the fact that sometimes a player’s popularity has nothing to do with how well they are playing. As a system that seeks to reward fans more so than players playing well it really needs to be adjusted. Granted even with coaches picking reserves its clear fans have lost sight between skill and sheer popularity. Because well you know, the guy who has played a handful of games (Nash) really deserves more vote than Mayo or Parker.