Yellow Peril

I'm generally opposed to stoking panic about the rise of China and have been greatly enjoying Will Hutton's The Writing on the Wall that I think provides a sensible non-alarmist take. But as long as we're talking about the NBA All-Star selections we really need to grapple with the Chinese threat. Simply put, one of the men pictured above has been putting together a season as a starting All-Star Guard. Another plays in the same conference with Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash.

Ironically, the Chinese basketball player all the Chinese fans come out to vote for utterly deserves his spot, but they also stick around to vote for his less-worthy American sidekick. In my opinion, this is a serious problem. What if one year Shane Battier winds up as a starting Western Conference forward while Kevin Garnett rides the pine?

1/26/07 2:17PM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

I'm not even sure that "they also stick around to vote for his less-worthy American sidekick" is accurate. IIRC, by some measure, McGrady is more popular in China (or among young Chinese aficionados) than Yao.

Posted by: SomeCallMeTim on January 26, 2007 02:52 PM

agreed, nash should start in front of mcgrady. But i can live with mcgrady being a starter instead of a reserve. but with battier, different story. he has no chance of making it as a reserve but was a hair away from being voted on as a starter. ridiculous. as long as yao is in the league there is a chance that General Tso himself could be voted in.

Posted by: MP on January 26, 2007 03:00 PM

Better question: who cares? The All-Star starters are decided by the fans. You just have to accept the fact that the average fan isn't as well-informed as you are. Or, maybe they are, but they'd rather watch an explosive, entertaining guy like McGrady (or Carter) than a more boring, deserving player.

Posted by: too many steves on January 26, 2007 03:07 PM

as long as yao is in the league there is a chance that General Tso himself could be voted in.

unlikely. he'd probably split the vote with general gao. ;)

Posted by: general gao on January 26, 2007 03:09 PM

;0)

Posted by: roy batty on January 26, 2007 03:23 PM

IIRC, by some measure, McGrady is more popular in China (or among young Chinese aficionados) than Yao.

I'm a bit dubious of this. At least as of when I was last in China a year & a half ago (which was subsequent to his trade to HOU), Yao's face was all over everywhere and T-Mac was nowhere to be found. (Could be that that's changed in the last year and a half, I suppose...)

In any case, it isn't a new problem that fans of one guy or team overwhelm the process in voting for the team's secondary star - remember when AC Green was elected by the fans to the All Star team??? (Um, probably Matthew doesn't, since he was, like, 10 at the time.) I guess the complaint is just that there are too damn many Chinese NBA fans.

Posted by: Al on January 26, 2007 03:31 PM

I'm not at all sure the Nash advantage is so clear cut.

Nash
19.6 points per game, 3.2 rebounds, 11.6 assists (sweet!)

TMac.

23.2 points per game, 5.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists

It's iffy, until of course you toss in the fact that the #1 selling NBA jersey in China is McGrady's, not Yao's.

Posted by: Davebo on January 26, 2007 03:32 PM

It just occurred to me why Matt plays down the China threat.

Posted by: a on January 26, 2007 03:53 PM

On the subject of fan voting for all-star games, Bill James once wrote:

"I am reliably informed that Robin Yount is not, in addition to his other virtues, a brilliant man, but he made one of the most perceptive comments that I heard on television in the summer of 1982. When asked who he thought should vote for the All-Star game, the players or the fans, he said, 'I can't really answer that question because I don't know who the game is supposed to be for. I don't know if the gamme is supposed to be for the fans or if it is supposed to be for the players.' You see the point? You know those people who run around saying that the players should elect the All-Star team because look at this vote and look at that one and there are all kind of people who don't deserve the honor to be in the starting lineup? Those people are making an assumption, without even realizing that they are, that the purpose of the All-Star game is to hionor the players, and therefore that the desire to honor the right people takes precedence over the desire to put in front of the fans the people the fans want to see. Is the game basically an honor for the players, or is it basically an entertainment for the fans? The answer you select to that question will tell you who ought to select the teams. People simply leap over that question and construct their reasoning from beyond it; Yount sliced up the argument with a deftness that William Buckley should envy."

Posted by: CJColucci on January 26, 2007 04:15 PM

Here's the real quandary.

What happens when Yi Jianlian enters the league and gets good enough to make the All-Star ballot. Won't like EVERYONE in China vote for him? And wouldn't it seem pretty racist to even like address this issue somehow?

Posted by: b.schac on January 26, 2007 04:36 PM

Davebo,

Are you seriously arguing that McGrady is having as good a year as Nash? You've cherry-picked the only stats that make the comparison even close -- check the shooting percentages. And try watching a basketball game once in a while, too.

Posted by: too many steves on January 26, 2007 05:00 PM

Point guards will never get an even break as long as they are lumped together on the ballot with shooting guards, Kirk Hinrich in the same bag as Vince Carter. In the SportsCenter age, with ballots dispropotionately cast by children, someone who racks up more assists than slam dunks won't get much love.

There should be 5 player categories on the ballot (PG, SG, SF, PF, C), rather than 3. Some players straddle the PG/SG or SF/PF distinction (to say nothing of the PF/C elision), but those players or their teams would ideally be free to nominate them for the sub-position that fits best.

Posted by: kth on January 26, 2007 06:01 PM

So, when healthy, T-Mac is very very good. Of course, "when healthy" is a big if. He's also taking fewer shots this year, which is why is per-game stats are lower. But, since Yao is having such a monster season, that seems reasonable.

It's not a great choice given the monster season from Nash and Kobe, but it's reasonable.

Is there any flex in the NBA ASG line-up? Or is it entirely set by the voters?

Posted by: Nicholas Beaudrot on January 26, 2007 06:32 PM

Voters pick the starters, coaches pick the reserves. That the East is fielding a team at all makes the farcical nature of the whole thing clear.

Posted by: SomeCallMeTim on January 26, 2007 06:35 PM

Here's the real Yao effect: Shane Battier and Chuck Hayes-- Chuck Hayes-- got Chinese sneaker deals this year.

Posted by: Freddie on January 26, 2007 06:53 PM

These are the same people who elected George Bush President of the United States twice. If they couldn't get something that important right, why would you expect them to be any better at selecting the best basketball players? Fortunately the NBA All-Star Game is a pure exhibition game, so it doesn't matter really at all who gets voted in as a starter. Save your outrage for the baseball All-Star Game where the outcome of the game actually has a potentially significant effect on who wins the World Series.

Posted by: Ron on January 26, 2007 07:02 PM

Well, in fairness Ron, our interactions with Al show us daily that it's often easier to make decisions dispassionately with respect to sports than it is in terms of politics.

Posted by: Pooh on January 26, 2007 09:33 PM

These are the same people who elected George Bush President of the United States twice.

Technically, I think the people Matt is complaining about were more in the Clinton camp, not to put too fine a point on it...

Posted by: Steve on January 26, 2007 10:03 PM

TooManySteves

Sorry, you're correct of course. Points per game, rebouds and assists are totally irrelevant to game performance.

Posted by: Davebo on January 27, 2007 12:59 PM

I never said they're totally irrelevant. But percentages are important too. Basically, you decided McGrady is having as good or almost as good a year as Nash, so you found a few statistics that make them look close. And even that isn't too impressive. McGrady's best attribute is his scoring, and he's averaging 23 ppg this year, compared to 19.5 ppg for Nash. Not a huge difference, and Nash is taking 13.3 shots a game, compared to 20 for McGrady.

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