Admit It, You Voted Twice (Per Day)

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A funny thing happened on the way to U.S. Airways Center:  Bruce Bowen was nearly voted an All Star. Coming in with a total of 1,392,398, he out paced the fanfare afforded to obvious All Star talents such as Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, and LaMarcus Aldridge. Bowen finished third, not far behind second place vote getter Amare Stoudemire. In terms of raw votes, Bruce Bowen received more voter love than Tony Parker. Strange, that.

Bowen_Votes

I’d like to believe that some benevolent fan led a grassroots movement to finally recognize Bowen’s defensive greatness, especially now that his minutes are in sharp decline.  An All Star appearance, on a Phil Jackson coached team, in Phoenix, would seem a fitting tribute to the league’s best perimeter defender of this decade. If that were the case, I’d be thrilled. But it’s doubtful.

What happened here? Is there an obvious explanation that will quell the inevitable conspiracy chatter? A quick look at the numbers reveals that multiple Spurs fared well. Tim Duncan led among all Western players not named Kobe Bryant. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, despite missing a large chunk of the early season, bested their 2008 numbers, doubling and tripling their vote total from last season. Have Spurs fans finally had their fill of media disregard? Are Bowen, Ginobili and Parker the beneficiaries of French and Argentine fans going Chinese on us? I’m guessing this is the case. And, if so, fine. Or, as Rob Mahoney thoughtfully put it, “Screw the reasons behind the vote; is casting a ballot on their terms any different (read: worse) than voting straight-ticket for your hometown team?” Of course not.

But if something else is afoot, we’d like to know.  Were the ballots counted in Chicago?  Is there a movement amongst fans to see more hard nose D in their superstar exhibitions? Do the fans simply want to see a good, old fashioned All Star brawl?  Bowen in a customary defense-less All Star game could hackle the feathers of one or two egos.

We ask you, dear readers, to help us solve the riddle. If you can help explain this anomaly, please leave a comment.

Update: Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game has a another take on Bowen’s vote total.

  • Trey

    I bet the Spurs had a bunch of interns voting on a bunch of different computers everday or something like that. I think it’s ridiculous that Bruce got more votes than all other west forwards except for 2. That’s so freaking obvious that a lot of other media around the country will start wondering how that happened. That is a major red flag.

  • louis

    Allstar games are always a popularity contest…every year one (most likely more than one) deserving player doesn’t make it because they play in a small market team with a crappy record. Didn’t DWade make it after being out injured almost the entire season? The Allstar game is an over blown “pat yourself on the back” for the NBA. Players know it, media know it and the fans know it. Don’t see how that would raise any flags, whether they be red or not.

    on a side note…one of the new converts from the True Hoop network merge. Don’t know where you’ve been but I am glad we met. Getting tired of having to still defend Horry from the still crying Phoenix fans. Finally able to talk about the NBA and Spurs with people that actually know what they are talking about.

  • dtm

    i’m just glad that the world still recognizes timmy’s greatness!

    substance over style!!

    is it true that gp on tnt said that timmy shouldn’t be starting? is he nuts?

  • http://OneAmericaCommittee.com Petey

    I’m very glad that you posted the France and Argentina theory.

    I’ve spent the past day being thoroughly befuddled at what could possibly account for Bowen’s vote numbers.

  • Brian

    Love me some Tim Duncan, and Tony P should make the expanded team.

    But Bowen? That’s just a recipe for a big star to incur a season-ending injury in the all-star game, and no one not named Bruce Bowen wants that.

  • Mason

    Considering how many people completely despise of Bruce Bowen, that’s pretty interesting. I know I never voted, as I could care less about a game where undeserving players such as A.I. are starters every year. But maybe bots were used in this situation, I don’t know.

  • Juan

    I would loved the idea of Bowen and other defensive aces get more consideration. Most sports focus on offensive stats and basketball is perhaps one of the worst doing it. There is almost and infinite number of stats for offensive production and barely a few for defense and defensive specialist rarely get the respect they deserve unless they happen to be well above average on offense. I’m waiting for the league to start tracking stats like forced turnovers (either bad passes or making the other player travel or something), charges taken, stats-below-average-for-guarded-player (showing the difference a defensive player makes in the final score, in Bowen’s case it would be something like Kobe “only” scoring 25 points and needing more shots than usual to get them), tapped-to-teammate rebounds, pass deflections, altered shots, saved balls (like diving for them when going out of bounds and other hustle plays), etc.

    Although getting an all-star berth this late on his career is definitely out of the question, I would have totally defend ( :D ) the idea of have him getting one during his prime. Something like Camby getting consideration each year when he is obviously below average on defense.

  • http://www.48minutesofhell.com Timothy Varner

    To the new guys, good to have you. We’re only a few days on with the 4 letter network, but the comments have been excellent so far.

    Juan, you might be interested in this piece I wrote a month or so back.

  • dtm

    “I’m waiting for the league to start tracking stats like forced turnovers (either bad passes or making the other player travel or something), charges taken”…

    man, i wish they did have those stats so my fantasy league can net those with turnovers.

    the game log would be like:
    manu ginobili bad pass. (trevor ariza steals)
    kobe bryant offensive foul.
    (manu ginobili forced turnover)

    net effect would be zero turnovers!

  • J-Bo

    Bruce Bowen is a bum! Boo.

  • Juan

    Wow, I said Camby is below average on DEFENSE. I hope everyone knows that was a mental typo.

  • Ted

    Having traveled around the world for some time one can’t help but notice the incredible popularity of the Spurs.

    Perhaps the All Star votes will open people’s eyes here. The Spurs players (Tim, Bruce, Manu, Tony) garnered the second highest total of votes. (#2 was the six players from Houston-Artest, Battier, Scola, T-Mac, Alston and Yao).

  • bellasa

    Ted, what’s really remarkable about the whole thing is that the Spurs organization does little to nothing to promote their stars for inclusion in the All-Star game.

    Pop doesn’t believe in trying to sell his team or players for a spot on the All-Star game. While he’s around, you will never see a Spurs produced video campaign for their individual players. It’s all about team.