Wasted Ballots: Don't Vote For NBA All-Stars Not in Contention

There are a lot of players you could vote for on the 2010 NBA All Star ballot. Not all of them, however, are worth it.

Two guards, two forwards, and one center will be voted in on each team by the fans.

Two guards, two forwards, a center, and two other players, regardless of position, will be voted in by the coaches.

In the event of an injury, the coaches will decide the replacement. 

Sounds easy enough, right?

Well, before you vote for the player that is your favorite on the ballot, maybe consider how likely your vote is to count. Right now, this is who the fans have voted to start the All-Star game.

West

C-Amar'e Stoudemire

F-Dirk Nowitzki

F-Carmelo Anthony

G-Kobe Bryant

G-Steve Nash

East

C-Dwight Howard

F-LeBron James

F-Kevin Garnett

G-Dwyane Wade

G-Allen Iverson

Not a bad list, but pretty typical.

Now, there are 122 players on the Ballot. Only around 17 are still up for contention to start in the All Star game.

The Guards in the East have been pretty much been narrowed down to Dwyane Wade, Allen Iverson, or Vince Carter. Vince is only around 100,000 votes behind Iverson, and Wade is beating Iverson by around 500,000.

The Forwards are down to KG, LeBron, or Chris Bosh, who is down by over 600,000 votes. He probably won't start.

Dwight has center almost wrapped up over Shaq by 800,000 votes

In the West, the guards are still up in the air between Steve Nash, Chris Paul, or Tracy McGrady. Kobe is definitely in (1,380,383 votes), but Steve, Chris, and Tracy each have vote totals in the 500,000s. It's a complete toss up at this point, but it could go anybody's way (Steve is leading at the moment by 5,000 followed by Tracy who's beating CP3 by 20,000).

The Center out West is being dominated by Amar'e, but Andrew Bynum is still RELATIVELY close by around 400,000 votes.

So, what constitutes a well-used vote?

Well, one way you could look at it is to only vote for people who are still in contention to start. That way, your vote has the most immediate impact.

For instance, if you really, REALLY don't want T-Mac to start in the All-Star game because he hasn't started one game yet this season, you should stop voting for Ramon Sessions, and OJ Mayo, and should start voting for Chris Paul, and Steve Nash. Voting against a player who's close to getting in would give you the most immediate impact on who plays.

Or, if you just really want your hometown star to play, more votes may influence the coaches decision. Last year, Al Jefferson was almost voted in by the coaches, but wasn't anywhere near voted in by the fans. This year it's the same situation. He has got 10 times fewer votes at center than Amar'e Stoudemire.

Not looking great for Big Al.

But, adding more votes to his total may influence some coaches to put their votes his way, despite being in fifth place amongst 12 centers in the West. 

So, maybe instead of voting for Raymond Felton, take a look at the return ballots to see who's actually up for their respective positions.

This article shows the results after the second return period of return ballots.

Vote smart, and vote often!