What The NBA All-Star Voting Results Tell Us About Player Perception

The differences between fan votes, media votes, and player votes show that some players are viewed differently by different groups.

This past Thursday, the results of the votes for the All-Star game starters were released. This year, as I’m sure you’ve heard about by now, the voting system was changed. Fan votes (#NBAVote) are now weighted at 50% to incorporate votes by media members (25%) and votes by players (25%). The full results show where each player finished in each category, which gives us a bit of insight into how fans, the media, and the other players may view a given player, and where things get interesting is when those views don’t match. A player you love might also be loved by the media, but less so amongst other players. Or, the media and the players could hold a player you’ve never heard of in high regard. These differences highlight certain players and how perceptions of them may be unfairly warped. I encourage you to take a look at the full results, but here are the most attention-catching players and results:

Marc Gasol (Fan: 10th/Media: 5th/Player: 5th)

This is a true travesty. When healthy, Marc Gasol has been one of the best centers in the league every year and he’s had playoff success, but still isn’t as popular amongst fans as he is good. No offence to the city of Memphis, but playing in Memphis undoubtedly has something to do with it (see: Mike Conley), as well as his relatively soft-spoken persona.

Klay Thompson (Fan: 4th/Media: 4th/Player: 8th)

Klay starts for one of the most popular teams in the league, which definitely helps him with fans. He has also had post-season success and is a great two-way player, which is a quality media members adore. With the player vote for Klay being lower than the fan and media vote, one might come to the conclusion that the fans and media overrate Klay.

John Wall (Fan: 7th/Media: 5th/Player: 4th) & Damian Lillard (Fan: 8th/Media: 6th/Player: 4th)

John Wall and Damian Lillard both finished 4th amongst their peers, in their respective conferences, making them the only players ranked in the top 4 amongst their peers to finish outside of the top 5 overall. With these two, the gap between fan votes and player votes is of note, as it indicates that fans are still a bit behind on how good these two guys are, which could be a result of their smaller-market teams being mediocre. Maybe John Wall was right.

C.J. McCollum (Fan: 16th/Media: 6th/Player: 5th)

Dame’s backcourt-mate, C.J. McCollum, is an extreme instance of the above. The players and media all recognize how good C.J. is, but he’s still a relatively unknown player among casual fans. The same factors mentioned above regarding Lillard also apply to McCollum, but given another playoff run or two, expect the gap in fan perception and player perception to dwindle.

Carmelo Anthony (Fan: 6th/Media: 12th/Player: 6th) & Kristaps Porzingis (Fan: 7th, Media: 6th/Player: 5th)

This brings us to the endlessly-entertaining New York Knicks. What immediately sticks out is that Melo finished twelfth in the media vote. Fortunately for Melo, though, he still has the popular fan vote, as well as the respect of his peers. The Unicorn finished above Melo in both the media and player vote, leading me to think that the educated opinion is that the Knicks are now Porzingis’ team and not Melo’s.

Zaza Pachulia (Fan: 2nd/Media: 10th/Player: 12th)

I’ll just get this one out of the way. Zaza is the reason the voting system was changed this year, and thankfully so. No offence to Zaza (and props to the country of Georgia), but he’s not even the 2nd best frontcourt player on his own team, let alone the conference. I guess this is one of those times when the popular vote not being the be-all and end-all is a good thing.

What did you find interesting about the results? Anything stick out to you?