They pay outrageous ticket prices to stuff the bank accounts of owners and players, some of whom view them as slightly above the evolutionary scale of the common sea slug.

They are nightly hammered at the concession stand by prices that would rival handing over their first-born male child, which in many cases would be much cheaper.

Their emotions are toyed with on a daily basis by some franchises who believe being competitive trickles down to a fervent hope they’re never compared to NBC’s handling of the Jay Leno-Conan O’Brien fiasco.

Which in this specific case would have to mean the New Jersey Nets.

“They”, of course, are the fans. Yes, this means you. The over charged, over stimulated, often victims of under achieving franchises without whom the NBA would be the CBA. Or the WNBA. I can never seem to separate the two.

But while you may have the (phantom) power to change the course of mighty (or so the advertising tell us) franchises with the single (season) economically sound purchase of a game (over produced assault to the senses to the point of often forgetting it’s a basketball game) ticket, you have failed miserably at the one (volunteer) job you have been given (allowed to have as a pacifier).

Voting and creating the All-Star team. A position almost every single NBA player has proof you are ill qualified to handle.

Especially one willing to publicly take the fans, and the NBA, to task.

Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen had the audacity (bravery) to speak up and chastise you fans for the biased (you paid for it) manner in which you have little (or none if you happen to have knocked down your third canyonesque cup of beer) concern for naming real All-Stars to the game. Instead you band of hero-worshippers (sometimes suckers who in one shape or form pay every single penny these players make) always focus on the same players (guys with the best PR machines in the business who haven’t been nailed yet on a gun charge), making for what is becoming a seasonal (yet profitable) bore for the players.

He would like to see NBA Commissioner David (Teflon Don) Stern change the voting procedure to one where the media (the people players always hate until they can be convinced to be proxies for player demands) and the fans (otherwise known as those meal tickets sitting in the seats) share in the process on a 50/50 (hoping the State or Florida won’t be involved in the final count) scale. Thus creating a more equitable and entertaining All-Star game.

This, of course, will happen right around the time we find the actual list where Wilt Chamberlain wrote down the names, addresses and various body part sizes of the 20,000 women he allegedly bedded in his lifetime.

While on face value Allen’s comments would seem a verbal slap in the (being gouged on ticket prices) puss of every loyal (heavily invested in every one of the 19 jersey styles created by every team simply to suck up another purchase or two) fan, let us examine the facts.

Not only does he have a point, but judging by the results this season you, the fan, have failed miserably.

Numbers don't lie, especially in this year's All Star voting. Evidence of how clueless a lot of fans really are, and the start of another good argument, is right here for the rest of Ed Berliner's article at "Examiner.com".