2010 NBA All-Star Game ballot unveiled
Let the voting (for Allen Iverson(notes)! Samuel Dalembert(notes)! Hakim Warrick(notes)!) 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
Observations:
• The biggest name left off the ballot appears to be Chicago Bulls forward/center Joakim Noah, who through Monday's games is averaging 11.3 points, 11.0 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. Chuck Swirsky says he would drop Dalembert, Bogut, Chandler, Jermaine O'Neal(notes) or Perkins for the wild-haired one, though I'd argue teammate Brad Miller(notes) makes the most sense.
• John Schuman: "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(notes), anyone?)
• Sactown Royalty: "None of the three [Kings] — Kevin Martin(notes), Spencer Hawes(notes) and Jason Thompson(notes) — will make the actual game, though Martin had a shot as a reserve before the injury. No Tyreke Evans(notes) on the ballot. The NBA fears the Martin Indonesia effect."
• My early votes: Wade, The Armadillo Cowboy, LeBron, Bosh and Dwight out East; Nash, Kobe, 'Melo, Dirk and ... um ... um ... can I give my vote to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?
