Dear NBA All-Star Voters...Recall Shaquille O'Neal

To be fair, you guys snub some deserving player from the starting lineup every season, inspiring a few days of media debate. Your tendency seems to be to select players because of who they are instead of how they're playing. However, this season's oversights are so plentiful and so egregious that I have to question not only your legitimacy as voters—but your legitimacy as basketball fans as well.

Let's start in the Eastern Conference, where perennial All-Star and quote-machine Shaquille O'Neal got the nod at center. The Daddy is a great player and a surefire Hall-of-Famer. What he is not, on the other hand, is the best center in the East. How could he be? The man's only played in five games this season. FIVE games!!! I don't know how anyone could find Shaq more deserving of that starting spot than Jermaine O'Neal...or Dwight Howard...or Emeka Okafor.

But apparently you do.

In the West, Kevin Garnett was voted into a starting forward spot over Dirk Nowitzki. Really? Listen, KG puts up nice numbers and everyone seems to like him, but Nowitzki is unquestionably the best player on one of the NBA's elite teams. The 7-foot German sharpshooter is amongst the favorites for MVP this season, while Garnett is leading the Timberwolves to a sub-.500 record and is rumored to be on the trading block every other week. Yet the people have spoken...and they've selected KG.

Maybe I'm missing something.

While we're on the subject of MVP candidates, the worst atrocity you All-Star Voters are guilty of is NOT voting Steve Nash a starter. You know, he's pretty good. Nash is the reigning two-time MVP and a strong candidate for this season's award. He's the floor general of the most exciting team in basketball, leading the Phoenix Suns and their high-octane offense to the best record in the NBA. He's also leading the league in assists (he's a whopping 2.5 dimes a game better than the next guy) and the Suns are in the middle of a 17-game winning streak.

But for some reason, Voters, Tracy McGrady is your choice to start at point guard for the West.

Underachieving, injury-prone Tracy McGrady.

Please send whatever you're smoking my way, because I definitely want a hit of that.

What this year's balloting has made clear is that, like all elections, the vote for the NBA All-Star starters is a popularity contest. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I guess I mistakenly assumed that the people voting were also NBA fans—fans who understood the game and recognized its deserving stars.

Evidently, though, the higher a player's Q-rating, the more worthy he is of a starting spot.

So until Dwight Howard and Emeka Okafor gain millions of fans through their commercial appeal rather than their play, we can look forward to an overweight, over-the-hill Shaq starting at center for the Eastern Conference in every All-Star Game before he retires.

You may have spoken, NBA fans, but that doesn't mean you know what you're talking about.

Democratically yours,

Dave Metrick