A few days ago, we linked to a post complaining about some of the All-Star fan voting injustices -- specifically, foreign voters stuffing the ballot box to get their countrymen (or prominent teammates of their countrymen) into the starting lineup. One of the most glaring examples of this bias was the fact that Yao Ming's Houston Rockets teammate, Tracy McGrady, was leading Chris Paul in the balloting among Western Conference guards despite his production (and durability) being vastly inferior to CP3's.

That was at the final voting update before the official results were tabulated, of course. Now we see the final tally for each player in the fan voting, and CP3 has (rightfully) surpassed the oft-injured T-Mac and joined the West's starting lineup. So, problem solved... right?

Not so fast, J.E. Skeets of Ball Don't Lie writes:

"For all the bitching and moaning fans do about the NBA 'fixing games' and 'tampering with Draft lottery envelopes,' they sure are quick to roll over and show their bellies whenever David Stern calls the fix in on something they want to see.

"You know, like Stern scratching Tracy McGrady's name from the top of the leading All-Star votes list and handing the starting Western Conference backcourt spot to Chris Paul..."

Which begs the question, how exactly did Paul not only erase a 157,063-vote deficit against McGrady, but also end up with a 456,000-vote lead over him in a 2-week span? 1.1 million votes in the final 2 weeks of the process... Is this even possible without shenanigans?

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Layups. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.