Indiana Pacers: Dear Adam Silver, please fix all-star voting

Dear Adam Silver,

Please fix all-star voting. The fact that players who are playing generationally great, such as the Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton, are unable to crack the top 5 in the fan vote for their position, which comprises 50% of the total vote, is concerning.

There are multiple reasons why this is problematic. The first, is that it tarnishes the quality of your all-star game. When the all-star game doesn’t feature the best players, but the most popular players, it creates a sort of class system in the NBA of the haves and have-nots. The players who are often rewarded aren’t necessarily the ones that are playing the best, but those who have the most commercials, show up in the most music videos, etc. You start to run the risk of the entire thing become a meme of itself, with players like Austin Reaves getting top-10 votes, when the players clearly are not performing at an all-star level.

The second reason, is that it punishes small-market teams into having their players get fewer accolades. Many of the players may say publicly that they don’t do it for the awards and all they care about is winning. But let’s all be honest for a second. Anyone good enough to be in the NBA will certainly see personal accolades as a bonus.

It punishes small-market teams into having their players get fewer accolades.

For example, if an all-star caliber players relevance is dependent upon national exposure, and not play alone, of course that player will gravitate towards bigger markets like New York and Los Angeles.

You see, you’ve had a small-market/big-market problem for awhile now. NBA fans have watched as beloved stars have left small-market teams for no real reason other than to “grow their brands.” This leaves small-market teams only a handful of options, building through the draft (Oklahoma City), lucking into a disgruntled star (similar to Toronto’s one-year rental championship), or being perpetually in the middle unable to leverage any amount of their future.

Small-market teams already have to operate in fear of losing their star players, causing them to have to operationally play a distinctly different game than the big-market teams. And while some of this is inevitable, perhaps you could stop punishing all small-market teams by turning the all-star game into a popularity contest.

I hope you will consider the request.

Sincerely,

Small-market team fans