All-Star ballot allow fans to vote by text message

[duncan228]

All-Star ballot allow fans to vote by text message (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-all-starballot&prov=ap&type=lgns)

The NBA has released its All-Star ballot and is allowing fans to vote by text messaging for the first time.

Fans can vote once per day, per phone number, by texting a player’s last name to 6-9-6-2-2 (MYNBA). Voting can also be done by paper ballot at each arena and online at www.nba.com.

There are 60 players per conference on the ballot. Fans can vote for two forwards, two guards and a center. Voting began Tuesday and continues through Jan. 10 for paper ballots and Jan. 18 for electronic voting. Starters will be announced Jan. 21.

The game will be played Feb. 14 in Dallas at Cowboys Stadium, where the NBA expects a crowd of more than 80,000, which would be the largest to watch a live basketball game.

[lefty]

I thought it was already possible

Welcome to 2009, NBA

[duncan228]

By the way, the voting has started.

https://audience.nba.com/services/msib/flow/all_star_ballot?url=null&src=eng&mcode=null&cid=null

[lurker]

I wonder how many write in votes Yao and Yi will pull in.

[lefty]

I wonder how many write in votes Yao and Yi will pull in.
Looking at your avatar hurts my eyes

[Slydragon]

Can't you also vote for them on the NBA2k10 game? I seen a option for all-star voting I believe but it did nothing when I click it.

[lurker]

If you stare too long, he starts to take control of your mind.

[noob cake]

I do not see Yao Ming; world explodes.

[TheMACHINE]

looks like Center is gonna be between Amare and Bynum

[lefty]

If you stare too long, he starts to take control of your mind.
:lol

[usdane]

Hello Adam Morrison and Iverson.

[lil_penny]

Last year it was starbury, this year its iverson.

[duncan228]

2010 NBA All-Star Game ballot unveiled (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/2010-NBA-All-Star-Game-ballot-unveiled;_ylt=As1q5ss2cuMp0ivcqs86hrK8vLYF?urn=nba ,201445)
By J.E. Skeets
Ball Don't Lie

Let the voting (for Allen Iverson! Samuel Dalembert! Hakim Warrick!) begin!

The official 2010 NBA All-Star ballot was unveiled today in Dallas, the host city for the February events.

Fans will be able to vote daily for the All-Star Game starters in a variety of ways, including: at each NBA arena; in 20 languages on NBA.com; and through mobile phones by texting the player's last name to 6-9-6-2-2 ("MYNBA"), via Web2Go on T-Mobile phones or wap.nba.com for any wireless carrier. A T-Mobile-branded All-Star Balloting widget will also be available on NBA.com so that fans can "drop" the widget on their blogs or social network pages allowing others to vote directly.

Paper balloting will continue through January 10, while wireless balloting and voting on NBA.com will conclude January 18. Starters will be announced live on TNT on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. (Man, 2010. Where the heck are those flying cars we were promised?)

As usual, there are 120 players listed on the ballot, and voters select two guards, two forwards and one center from each conference. The 120 names were selected by a panel of NBA scribes. This year's "Dream Team" included Mike Breen (ABC/ESPN), Eddie Sefko (Dallas Morning News), Doug Smith (The Toronto Star) Marc Spears (Yahoo! Sports, what what!), Marc Stein (ESPN) and Ian Thomsen (SI).

After the jump, a complete listing of the players as they appear on the ballot, as well as some notes on who's missing because the NBA continues to release this thing way too early.

2010 NBA All-Star Eastern Conference Ballot

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http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x282/duncan228/temp/allstarballot3.jpg

Observations:

• The biggest name left off the ballot appears to be Chicago Bulls forward/center Joakim Noah (http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-bulls-confidential/2009/11/joakim-noah-isnt-on-the-all-star-ballot.html), who through Monday's games is averaging 11.3 points, 11.0 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. Chuck Swirsky says (http://twitter.com/swirsk054/status/5594841219) he would drop Dalembert, Bogut, Chandler, Jermaine O'Neal or Perkins for the wild-haired one, though I'd argue teammate Brad Miller makes the most sense.

• John Schuman (http://twitter.com/johnschuhmann/statuses/5594731653): "Yao and Yi combined for more than 4.3 million votes last year. Neither is on this year's ballot." (Can you say Shane Battier, anyone?)

• Sactown Royalty (http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2009/11/10/1124656/three-kings-make-nba-all-star-game): "None of the three [Kings] — Kevin Martin, Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson — will make the actual game, though Martin had a shot as a reserve before the injury. No Tyreke Evans on the ballot. The NBA fears the Martin Indonesia effect."

• My early votes: Wade, The Armadillo Cowboy (http://s1.e-monsite.com/2009/01/22/21706187joe-johnson-png.png), LeBron, Bosh and Dwight out East; Nash, Kobe, 'Melo, Dirk and ... um ... um ... can I give my vote to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AlTRfIfPUjyfn4UZFHzXwgS8vLYF?slug=ap-abdul-jabbar-leukemia&prov=ap&type=lgns)?

[Allanon]

And Chris Kaman is not even on the centers list.:wow

If he continues like he is right now, he's a lock for the coach's vote.

Amare/Bynum are gonna duke it out for the Center spot. Big Al might be a coach's vote but I don't think so.

Ron Artest is going to get a huge chunk of Yi's and Yao's voters. He might make runner up All-Star in the West. Melo For sure, then a maybe between Kevin Durant, Duncan, Pau and Dirk.

[Sportstudi]

No Yao Ming and no Yi Jianlian? Some chinese kids will not understand that....

[Sportstudi]

Ron Artest is going to get a huge chunk of Yi's and Yao's voters. He might make runner up All-Star in the West.

Not only Ron, the whole current Rox team will get it's share as well as the players who were playing for Houston last season (as Ron). Same for the Nets and Yi.

[Allanon]

Not only Ron, the whole current Rox team will get it's share as well as the players who were playing for Houston last season (as Ron). Same for the Nets and Yi.

I think Ariza and Aaron Brooks will get alot of votes. Some to Battier. I don't think there's a strong connect between the other players and the Chinese...but I'm just flat out guessing on that one.

Yi's votes are going to be interesting, might make Brook Lopez into an All Star.

[Danny.Zhu]

I'll vote for Yao anyway. LOL.

[BRHornet45]

sons the fans have no business being allowed to vote. it should be strictly players, coaches, etc.

[Culburn369]

And of course along with the power rankings, MVP vigils, spelling indictments, ignore feature activations this Forum does All Star happy horseshit.:rolleyes

[makedamnsure]

Put in my vote for Timmy.

[BlackSwordsMan]

sons david west should be 1st ballot all star

[badfish22]

sons Dirk should not be on the all-star ballot. Sons Elton Brand is better

[Rip-Hamilton32]

no Ben Wallace? but Brad Miller

[duncan228]

Inside the All-Star ballot selections (http://espn.go.com/blog/TrueHoop/post/_/id/10528/inside-the-all-star-ballot-selections)
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

What a difference two years makes.

As recently as November 2007, I eagerly awaited the annual release of the NBA's All-Star ballot, mainly because I knew second-guessing it would be an easy item for the Weekend Dime.

In 2009?

After participating on the top-secret ballot panel for the second straight year, I invited folks earlier Tuesday to send their second-guesses directly to me via Twitter (www.twitter.com/STEIN_LINE_HQ).

No one has formally cleared me or asked me to speak for the whole panel, which also includes Mike Breen (ABC/ESPN play-by-play man), Eddie Sefko (Dallas Morning News), Doug Smith (Toronto Star and president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association), Marc Spears (Yahoo! Sports) and Ian Thomsen (Sports Illustratred). But I feel compelled to try to share some insights on how we arrived at some of the decisions that have elicited the most passionate protests I've seen.

We start, though, with two reminders.

1. Every team must have a minimum of three players on the ballot. It's not a matter of merely choosing the top 12 centers, 24 forwards and 24 guards in each conference.

2. All of our voting was completed during the first week of October -- more than a month ago -- for printing reasons. The league needs that much time to get the ballots ready for public consumption.

Onto some of the louder points of contention:


* The biggest omission in the West has to be Clippers center Chris Kaman, whose spot essentially went to teammate Marcus Camby. The consensus here was that the Clips, coming off a 19-win season, didn't merit two centers in a 12-man category. Camby's veteran status nudged him ahead of Kaman, who has since reeled off a streak of six 20-point games that ended Monday.

* You'll note that we did not apply the one-center limit in the East, where Boston landed Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed Wallace on the ballot. The difference? Boston's status as title contenders and an even bigger shortage of quality center candidates than the West convinced us that two centers from one team was acceptable in this instance.

* Regular Clips-watchers are also undoubtedly wondering why Al Thornton is on the ballot and Eric Gordon is not. It was a positional issue. Forward slots were harder to fill in the West, creating an opening for Thornton.

* Brad Miller's inclusion with the East centers over Chicago teammate Joakim Noah was another nod to veteran status without the benefit of knowing how well Noah, like Kaman, would start the season.

* Tyreke Evans over Spencer Hawes? The majority ruled that No. 1 overall pick Blake Griffin should be the only rookie on the ballot, which helped Hawes -- along with that perennial center shortage -- snag one of the three slots allotted to the Kings. The same reasoning applies to Ramon Sessions over Johnny Flynn in Minnesota. Rookies generally have to wait their turn to crack the ballot. Even Brandon Jennings.

* Memphis' Zach Randolph is the league's only current top-20 scorer who didn't make the ballot, but I don't sense Kaman-level fury about the selection of Marc Gasol over Randolph.

* The biggest problem with the ballot -- as much as any of these issues are "problems" when no one in the discussion is a legit candidate to be voted in as a starter -- is Allen Iverson's presence as a West guard option.

Reason being: Iverson is the one guy in the discussion who theoretically could be voted in by the fans.

Iverson was certainly deserving of a spot among West guards when we assembled the ballot. He and Tracy McGrady still have way too much popularity, no matter what their critics say, to leave them off. Especially when we're talking about the fans' game.

However ...

What happens if Iverson is selected to start for the 10th time in the past 11 seasons when he's not actually active with the Grizz? Or if he ends up retiring and/or gets bought out of his Memphis contract and still gets voted in a starter?

The reality is that Iverson would need a <i>lot</i> of support from the general public to be voted in ahead of Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul in the West. Yet the answer to all of the above questions, at this juncture, is that no one is quite sure how the league would handle it. There’s nothing in the manual for this one. The mere possibility would appear to be an unprecedented situation ... unless you want to compare it to Magic Johnson starting in the 1992 All-Star Game after he announced his retirement early in the 1991-92 season after testing positive for HIV.

And I wouldn't. Iverson leaving the Grizz in contentious circumstances after playing in just three games is really nothing like the circumstances that sent Magic to Orlando in '92.

We repeat: It will almost certainly wind up as a non-issue thanks to Kobe and CP3. But if you’re looking for something to bounce back and forth on this ballot, that’s the topic.

[boston.balla]

sons the fans have no business being allowed to vote. it should be strictly players, coaches, etc.

that's right son!