Mission: All-Starbury... Voicing A Movement

A few days ago, the ever-enthusiastic 3 Shades of Blue posed an interesting proposition: Vote for Stephon Marbury as a starter for this year's All-Star game. While the idea has garnered some attention from some other blogs I like and even inspired a Facebook group, it still lacks a formal statement of purpose, a reason for the typical NBA fan to identify and unite with the common cause behind the call to action.

Just what is it that we can accomplish with whatever message is sent by our votes? I've decided to lay out three such reasons that you, the followers of the National Basketball Association, should vote for Stephon Marbury's inclusion in ASG: Phoenix.

1) ASG balloting is unfair to players by making it virtually impossible to reward deserving "breakout" candidates.

The definition of "All Star" shouldn't just be who's famous or who's playing for a team in a major media market, but also of which players' skill as demonstrated by on-the-court play helps to prove that the best basketball players in the world are in the NBA. Jose Calderon wasn't on last year's ballot for the Raptors, as he was still backing up T.J. Ford, but after Ford's early season injury Calderon arguably bested the production of any other Eastern conference point guard through All-Star Weekend and was most definitely a critical floor leader for the playoff-bound Raptors. Yet instead of rightfully recognizing Calderon, Jason Kidd got the start in last year's ASG representing an abysmal Nets squad that had traded him earlier that week.

Write-in candidates have never statistically registered any substantial showing in All-Star voting, and the decreased profile that players endure for lack of inclusion in All-Star consideration amplifies the effects of anonymity that befall small market players. This in turn translates to undervaluing their services in the open-market negotiations of free agency, and often unfairly rewards players who happen to be from big market teams with bonuses and further exposure for making the ASG. Remember, this isn't just a business for the corporations who prop up teams, it's the livelihood of these athletes as well.

2) The NBA's offer to listen to us has been supplanted by expressions of the athletic jingoism of another nation's self-identity.

I don't mean this point to in any way to disparage the Chinese people. I had the extraordinary pleasure to have visited China myself for two months in 2002 and enjoyed an incredible, life-changing experience that was only enhanced by the great relationships I forged with many natives of that beautiful nation.

But seriously, guys. China's messing up the All-Star game something fierce.

The ridiculous vote tallies for Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady every year (and soon Yi Jianlian, you can be sure) would have the uninformed spectator assume that the pair were responsible for the most recent three-pete of championships, when in fact it's purely indicactive of the ironic contradiction of David Stern and the NBA's tireless quest to increase the game's market share overseas. In their effort to make the game more interesting and profitable among a wider audience, the fan-vote has lead to improperly rewarding mediocre or even inactive players, shutting out more deserving candidates and ultimately leaving us with another inferior product of an ASG. The ideal is egalitarian and novel, but the practice is broken and ultimately an inadequate way to select the best All-Star representatives from around the league. I'm not fully sure what the alternative should be (coaches vote for starters?) but I think we can say for sure that the fan vote for starters has run its course.

3) Voting for Starbury is a statement against reckless team mismanagement across the league.

Perhaps most importantly of all, this can be our way of calling out the grotesque failures of the league in recent years. BMac points out that one of the most irksome properties of the Marbury situation is that it reminds us all-to-obviously about an epidemic that has befallen some of our proud and beloved franchises in recent years: the unforgiveable, catastrophic failures of certain representatives of management in the NBA. Simply put, it's unconsionable of some GMs and Team Presidents to have signed players to massive deals of gross amounts of money for ludicrous lengths of guaranteed years.

The Knicks are the quintessential example of what's wring with team management in the Association today. They've been so hamstrung by their failures to recognize either the talent that would prove worth such ridiculous deals (as opposed to, say the Eddie Currys of the world) or the long-term implications of wasting such funds on how the league will operate around that particular team. Contracts like Steph's are untradeable, and so badly mess up cap figures that the free agent market artificially de-values legitimately qualified candidates for hard-earned deals, once again penalizing good players who otherwise deserve to be rewarded on the merritts of their play and what they can bring to a franchise.

The league owes a sincere apology and a heck of a lot of refunds to every single paying customer who watched Isiah Thomas coach a game in the last two years, or an fan who paid for a rip-off of a product being trotted out every night under such formerly respected a branding as the "New York Knicks" (or the other franchises that seem intent on torturing us for our love of the game and our hometown teams.) Demand the league's attention and make them eat the embarrassment that mismanagement has duly brought their way by voting for Marbury this year.

I believe that Mission: All-Starbury can be more than a joke, or an idle and unfocused lashing out at the NBA for our collective malaise. of its most. It can be a legitimate statement of the grievances of its most loyal and engaged patrons, actualized into a single pointed and overwhelming action too absurd and too prominent to be ignored.

Vote early. Vote often.

Stephon Marbury for All-Star 2009 starts now.