The names of the NBA All-Star starters were announced, but with one name left out of the starting lineup, Russell Westbrook.
Even with Westbrook averaging a triple-double and leading the NBA in scoring with 30.6 points per game, it still wasn’t enough for him to snag a spot as a starter.
The question on everyone’s mind is: How is that possible? The answer to that question will have sports fan wondering how could this be.
With Westbrook still on track with becoming the only player besides Oscar Robertson to average a triple-double, it seemed pretty cleared that Westbrook was a fan favorite to be voted once again as a Western Conference starter.
Last year the fans controlled the fate of the players receiving a starting position by voting for their favorite player. But this year was quite different.
Not only was the fan votes included but the player’s and media’s votes counted as well.
With the new voting system, the fan votes counted for only 50 percent of the total score and the media and players votes counted for 25 percent each.
In addition, the players were ranked in each conference by position with the voting categories. Each player’s scores were determined by averaging their weighted rank from the voting group.
The five players from each conference with the best score were selected to be the starters.
However, with Westbrook being one of the top favorites to participate in the All-Star last year, one would assume Russell Westbrook wouldn’t have a problem obtaining the fan votes.
But the fan votes this year is what robbed him of the starter position this time around.
Russell Westbrook was tied with Stephen Curry and James Harden with points and was even ranked No.1 in the media vote and player vote.
However, the tiebreaker came down to fan votes and Westbrook saw himself at the bottom of the ranking, coming in at third, optimally losing his starting position in the NBA All-Star game.
On the other hand, Westbrook wasn’t the only victim of the new voting system kicking him out as a starter. Boston Celtics Guard Isaiah Thomas was also not named a starter.
Thomas and Toronto Raptors Guard DeMar DeRozan, similar to the Westbrook; Curry and Harden situation, were both tied in the points category. However, DeRozan won the fan vote and was named starter over Thomas.
The starters for the Western Conference are Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, James Harden and Stephen Curry.
The starters for the Eastern Conference are Giannis Antetokounmpo, Lebron James, Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving and DeMar DeRozan.
