“Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.” – Immanuel Kant

Many people in today’s society hold the opinion that it is better to be popular than it is to be right. That is to say, the majority of us believe that whatever is well-known or highly visible is inherently better than that which is obscure or challenged. One need only consider a few examples in entertainment to verify this: in music, the rarer a vinyl or EP the less impact it has; in film, the more money a movie makes its opening weekend the more important it is; or in literature, where best seller lists drive cultural understanding and acceptance.

I am here to defend a different maxim, one that fellow writers across the internet have long stood behind. That position is such: popularity is in no way an indication of quality. Public opinion may be held in reverence, but it does not settle matters of real importance. This is particularly true in the issue of fan voting for the NBA All-Star Game.

It has been said that applause waits on success, that fans do not vote for players until they are worthy. This is not the case. Fans do not vote for players based on their performance that particular season, but sadly they do so based on accumulated reputation and tenure. The vast majority of online voters will not select a player until they are a known commodity, which is precisely the wrong way to select a roster that is supposed to be representative of that specific season.

That is why you end up with situation whereby Tracy McGrady, a formerly-great but now exceedingly-average player almost started in for the Western Conference over the Chris Paul, who is unquestionably the best point guard in the league.

Further proof that fan voting is a fraud came in the form of Yi Jianlian, a middling starter and basic rotation player for New Jersey, that nearly beat out Kevin Garnett for a starting spot in the East when he barely starts for his own team.

This is to make no mention of Bruce Bowen, a defensive specialist that, at 37, is not starting for San Antonio and averages less than 3 points and 2 rebounds per game. While Bowen now struggles to crack the Spurs top nine rotation, he is nearly voted in as a starter next to the likes of his teammate, the immortal Tim Duncan, and his arch-nemesis Kobe Bryant. The reason? Bowen has done numerous charity and game-development trips to China, where he is beloved and adored as an ambassador and apparently bestowed upon with hundreds of thousands of foolish votes.

There are populists among us that would clamor at the idea that we should take the vote away from the fans, even though they have proven that they are not be trusted with such powers. “Fans deserve the right to choose who they want to see play!” they shout. “It is a meaningless exhibition game that is played solely to celebrate the league and its fans!”

I cannot help but vehemently disagree with that notion. The All-Star Game is a celebration…but of the game and its players, not of the fans. It is a reward that players strive their entire careers for, that they bleed and sweat nightly for, yet fans stuff ballot boxes and click on web voting as those it were nothing more than important than a poll to pick the new colour of M&Ms.

The All-Star Game is about the fans. In a very real way, all sports are, or at least should be. Without the fans there is no game and no NBA. But my issue is that you need not be a basketball fan to earn the right to vote presently.

You do not need to prove your passion for, nor knowledge of, the game, to make your voice heard. The knowledgeable, studied fan has no more say than a 10-year-old that has watched one game all season. You needn’t pass an IQ test, or even have access to NBA.com for statistics. You simply need to be willing to give your time.

This is no one’s fault and there is actually a (rather weak) case to be made that this system is democracy at its finest, where all votes are equal no matter what. Majority wins and that is that. But what if the majority of people don’t know what they are doing? There is no accounting for what John Oliver of The Daily Show once termed “the Stupid Vote.” What do you do when the system rewards name recognition and fading star power over performance, as has been the case here?

League officials and executives know that fan voting drives interest, and that overseas voters that fill ballots out for Yao and Yi represent new revenue streams, so to take power and active participation interest away from them would be unthinkable.

But that is what needs to happen. Perhaps only allow coaches to vote for the entire team. Or officials. Or league executives. Or fans that pay to see a game live.

Admittedly, there is no perfect system and any alternative has flaws. But there is no way a revised system could be worse than having Grant Hill be elected a starter without playing a game, as he was years ago, or having Vince Carter in 2002-03 be voted in despite having played in a mere 14 games before the All-Star break.

It is this system that gives us Allen Iverson, in the midst of his worst season as a professional and leading the Pistons to their worst record in almost a decade, being voted as a starter based exclusively on past reputation. It also has given us Amar’e Stoudemire as a starter despite his defense being awful, his scoring and rebounding going down from last season, his team falling apart, and Stoudemire being outplayed by Dirk Nowitzki nightly.

I am not the first, or last, blogger with a voice to broadcast these concerns. There is no easy answer when it comes to voting for the mid-season classic and I cannot give David Stern and company a perfect formula for solving this problem.

While I cannot give the ideal formula for success on voting, I can supply the formula for failure: try to please everyone. Listening to every voice leads to fool-hearted decisions that are based on fame, not talent.

Photo Credit: ICON Sports Media