The Detroit Pistons have two players, Derrick Rose and Jerami Grant, who are in the running for the All-Star team in the Eastern Conference.
The NBA released the first results of fan voting and both Rose and Grant were in the top-ten in their respective categories.
Jerami Grant is ranked 10th among frontcourt players in the East, while Derrick Rose came in as the 8th ranked guard in total votes.
These numbers alone are a solid argument for ending fan voting.
I get that the All-Star game is an exhibition that is for the fans, but it is also a system to recognize the best players as well as the most popular, which doesn’t always happen.
No offense to Derrick Rose, but he has no business being on this list and only is because he has a lot of very dedicated fans (huge euphemism there).
He probably won’t end up on the team but the fact that he has over 180,000 votes shows that this is not a system meant to reward the league’s best players.
What about Jerami Grant?
Detroit Pistons: How many All-Star votes does Jerami Grant have?
Jerami Grant is currently the 10th ranked frontcourt player in All-Star voting with just over 134,000 votes.
This is absurd considering he ranks in the top-five of just about every category for small forwards and undoubtedly deserves to be an All-Star (how to vote for him here).
This is not surprising considering Grant has come out of nowhere this season and plays on a bad team that few outside of Detroit pay attention to but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be an All-Star given the season he is having.
I wouldn’t want to take the fan vote out entirely but I’d like to see a way to reward guys from teams that aren’t on national television much who are having great seasons.
The NBA is always talking about expanding its viewership but gives little reason or opportunity for the fans of a lot of teams to tune in to national broadcasts.
I’m not sure there even should be an All-Star game this season (probably not) but if there is, Jerami Grant should be in it. The fact that he won’t be is an indictment of the current voting system.