The NBA and Sprint announced the players on the 2013 All-Star ballot on Wednesday and L.A. Clippers Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Grant Hill and Chauncey Billups made the list. 36 “frontcourt” and 24 guards were selected from each conference, totaling 120 players. The ballot was decided by Steve Aschburner (NBA.com), Jonathan Feigen (Houston Chronicle), Doug Smith (Toronto Star/PBWA), and Kenny “The Jet” Smith (TNT).
Surprisingly, Jamal Crawford — who’s leading the the team in scoring at 20.3 PPG — and DeAndre Jordan did not make the list (which shows that taking away the center position really does hurt some players). Both can still make the team, but they’ll have to be written in, which greatly diminishes their chances.
Not to take anything away from Billups and Hills, but they haven’t even played a regular season game yet, and probably won’t for at least a few weeks, so it’s clear their reputations were the only reason they were included. At this point, both will likely serve minor roles on the court; their veteran presence and locker room leadership is what makes them so valuable. Unfortunately, they took two away two spots from their more deserving teammates.
Also replacing Crawford and Jordan were head-scratchers like Andre Miller (Denver) and Tony Allen (Memphis) in the backcourt, and Kendrick Perkins (Thunder) and Omer Asik (Rockets) in the frontcourt. The All-Star ballot is one frustrating entity indeed.
For the first time ever, fans will be able to vote via Facebook and Twitter. Facebook voting will take place on an app created by the NBA. To vote on Twitter, fans have to tweet a player’s first and last time, along with the hashtag #NBABallot. Thanks to J.E. Skeets of The Basketball Jones, this set off a Twitter parody, #NBAPalate, which flooded Twitter and caused a lot of laughs.
Besides social media and mobile devices, fans can still vote the traditional way on NBA.com. Balloting ends Jan. 14. The starters will be announced on “Inside the NBA”, prior to TNT’s exclusive doubleheader featuring the Los Angeles Clippers at the Minnesota Timberwolves (8 p.m. ET) and the Miami Heat at the Los Angeles Lakers (10:30 p.m. ET).
The All-Star game will be on Feb. 17th, 2013 in Houston, Texas, at the Toyata Center.
