Steve Kerr is an outspoken guy, especially for an NBA head coach. Recently, he’s turned his sharp tongue onto politics and society, and done so intelligently and conscientiously. But he’s still an NBA coach, and his concerns once again turned back to basketball when the first-ever list of players’ votes for the All-Star Game were released, and there were some kooky choices. Kerr was steamed.
”I am very disappointed in the players,” Kerr said before the Warriors played the Miami Heat on Monday night. ”They’ve asked for a vote and a lot of them just made a mockery of it. I don’t know what the point is.”
[…]
Kerr was asked why he would use the word ”mockery.””I saw the list,” Kerr said. ”I saw all the guys who got votes. … There were 50 guys on there who had no business getting votes. Although a lot of people wrote in their buddies in the presidential vote as well. So maybe that’s just their own way of making a statement. I think if you’re going to give the players a vote, I think they should take it seriously.”
Kerr has a point — among the players receiving votes from their fellow NBAers were Marcelo Huertas, Georgios Papagiannis, Mo Williams, Timothe Luwawu and plenty of other head-scratchers. Of the nearly 450 rostered NBA players, only 324 voted, meaning that each individual’s vote had plenty of weight. For example, Paul George lost out on the third frontcourt spot in the East to Jimmy Butler by only four votes in the players’ section. That wouldn’t have overcome his lack of support from the fans, but if whoever voted for Thon Maker (two All-Star votes for 98 total minutes this season!) had thrown support behind PG-13, at least he could have counted himself as a starter according to his peers.
Kerr’s frustration is completely justified — players asked for this vote, and if they’re going to treat it like it doesn’t matter, then they shouldn’t have it in the first place.
(Via NBA.com)
