It’s been a long time since you could argue the NBA All-Star Game starters are the five best players in each conference.
The league lets fans have a say in picking the starters. That’s fun and relatively harmless. But it means the process becomes as much an Internet exercise in ballot-box stuffing as a reflection of accomplishment. That became apparent two years ago when journeyman center Zaza Pachulia was in the running to start because he then played for the super-team Golden State Warriors.
Now, the league has a weighted system where fan votes count 50 percent, active players’ votes count 25 percent and a panel of media members counts another 25 percent.