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Sabonis and Fox aren’t in the top 10 of All-Star fan votes, and I feel fine

This really shouldn't be a surprise.
By | 36 Comments | Jan 6, 2023

Nov 30, 2022; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings forward Domantas Sabonis (10) celebrates with guard De'Aaron Fox (5, right) during pregame introductions before the game against the New Orleans Pelicans at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Early returns for the NBA All-Star fan vote were released on Thursday, and you’ll be shocked to learn that NBA fans in general aren’t flocking to vote for Sacramento Kings players.

Now, I understand the natural reaction to be upset when Kevon Looney is getting more votes than Domantas Sabonis, or when Austin Reeves is in the top 10 and De’Aaron Fox isn’t.

It’s no surprise that a popularity contest favors players from the reigning champs from a large media market, as well as the largest NBA fan base that is well known for not understanding the reality of the NBA. In an era where team sites have features set up to automatically vote for 5 players on a fan’s favorite team, role players from those teams are bound to end up with lots of votes.

Personally, I don’t really care. The fan vote only accounts for 50% of selecting the starters for the game, and has 0% bearing on filling out the remainder of the All-Star rosters. As wonderful as this season has been, Fox and Sabonis were never going to be starters in the West. Frankly, they shouldn’t be. And for added context, the Kings have never had an All-Star starter in the Sacramento era, even in the glory days. So who cares about a fan vote this year?

The reserves will be selected by a vote of NBA coaches, and then the league office decides on injury replacements as needed. That is the vote that will determine if Fox and Sabonis make the All-Star game, as they deserve.

In the meantime, if you feel compelled to right this wrong, you can vote once per day at vote.nba.com.

Fan votes count triple on the following days:

  • 1/6/23 (that’s today!)
  • 1/13/23
  • 1/16/23
  • 1/20/23

The Kings have also set up kings.com/vote, which has a link to a ballot prefilled with the Kings starters.

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RikSmits
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January 6, 2023 8:22 am

Yeah, if there would not be an All Star selection, I would feel fine.
If there would be no All Star game, I would be fine too.

A lot of attention being given to one big marketing event that has very little to do with actual basketball. But of course, as Kangz fans we were quite accustomed to watching games that had little to do with actual basketball.

RPO
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RPO
January 6, 2023 8:56 am
Reply to  RikSmits

If there would be no All Star game, I would be fine too.

This is where I’m at, too. In fact, I’d be fine without All Star weekend altogether. I never found the celebrity participation games and skills contests (other than slam duck contest and 3-pt contest) and other activities to be interesting at all.

andy_sims
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January 6, 2023 9:12 am
Reply to  RPO

PETA is not going to like this, not one bit.

RPO
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January 6, 2023 12:01 pm
Reply to  andy_sims

Stupid phone autocorrect. I’d probably be interested in a slam duck contest, honestly.

RikSmits
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January 6, 2023 12:06 pm
Reply to  RPO

Will the ducks be treated by a quack, afterwards?

RPO
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RPO
January 6, 2023 1:02 pm
Reply to  RikSmits

Only the finest duck treatment

comment image?size=details_zoomed

RikSmits
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January 6, 2023 1:50 pm
Reply to  RPO

Is that for a bloodbath?

Marty
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January 6, 2023 4:29 pm
Reply to  RikSmits

Last edited 1 year ago by Marty Marty
andy_sims
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January 6, 2023 9:11 am

As has been remarked, the masses are asses.

My reaction is the same as yours, it’s the coaches who know what’s going on. Hell, if all you ever watched were TNT/Mouse games, you wouldn’t even know that there was an NBA team in Sacramento.

RobHessing
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January 6, 2023 9:16 am

Sabonis shouldn’t play, anyway – no upside to that whatsoever. Huerter will get a 3 pt. comp. invite, Murray to the rising stars. That leaves Fox as a potential WC reserve if he doesn’t get squeezed out by the numbers. He’s basically battling Curry, Luka, Ja, SGA and Lillard – give him no worse than the 6th chair as Booker (and maybe Curry) sit it out.

Klam
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Nostradumbass 18
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January 6, 2023 9:18 am
Reply to  RobHessing

Wouldn’t that be something…Sabonis gets invited as a reserve, only for his hand injury to get more aggravated.

RobHessing
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January 6, 2023 9:25 am
Reply to  Klam

Jokic would probably try to high five him out of commission.

Jack
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January 6, 2023 9:43 am
Reply to  RobHessing

If you asked Fox and Sabonis what is more important being an All Star or going to the playoffs what do you think they both would say?

HumboldtCPA
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January 6, 2023 10:13 am
Reply to  Jack

What they say and what they feel might be two different answers. I would guess they would say playoffs as a PR response but in reality it would mean a lot for them to be an All Star. But to end the 16 year drought could also be a high priority/reward. Who knows! Either way I’m stoked with how this season and their playing has been so far!

andy_sims
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January 6, 2023 11:28 am
Reply to  HumboldtCPA

I’ve never detected even a hint of selfishness from either, let alone that they are secretly more interested in personal accolades than they are about turning one of the historically awful franchises in sport back into a winner.

Should one or both be named to the All-Star team, and the Kings don’t make the playoffs, I don’t believe for a minute that either man will find that satisfactory.

RobHessing
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January 6, 2023 10:30 am
Reply to  Jack

They would each answer “Getting laid.” They’re dudes.

Klam
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Nostradumbass 18
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January 6, 2023 11:15 am
Reply to  RobHessing

comment image

Kosta
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January 7, 2023 10:04 am
Reply to  Klam

comment image

Last edited 1 year ago by Kosta
Kingsguru21
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January 6, 2023 10:30 am

I almost never vote. It’s a popularity contest Kings players will never win. It’s pretty simple, that.

Gregoryl
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January 6, 2023 11:27 am

Unless a fan follows the Kings, you have little/no idea what the Kings are doing this year. Until the Kings show they aren’t a joke, for an extended period of time, national media/fans will continue to ignore them.

RPO
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January 6, 2023 12:05 pm

the Kings have never had an All-Star starter in the Sacramento era, even in the glory days

I thought Webber got a starting nod once. Shows you how much attention I pay to these things.

Klam
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January 6, 2023 3:52 pm
Reply to  RPO

I just looked it up. Seems like Webber was a starter in 2001 and 2002?

Hobby916
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January 6, 2023 12:21 pm

I vote for Sabonis because he has played like an All-Star. Fox is not one of the top 5 Guards so he gets no votes for me.

Jack
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January 6, 2023 2:24 pm
Reply to  Hobby916

You really think James is better than Fox so far this year? Would make him one of the top 5 guards in the NBA. IMO James doesn’t deserve that.

RobHessing
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January 6, 2023 2:55 pm
Reply to  Jack

James is considered a frontcourt player on the ballot.

Curry, Thompson, Booker, Morant, Edwards, Lillard, Gilgeous-Alexander. Fox needs to vault at least one of those guys. My guess is that one or two of those guys sit out all-star weekend.

Hobby916
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January 6, 2023 3:47 pm
Reply to  Jack

I never even mentioned James…

rockbottom
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January 6, 2023 2:30 pm

I have no interest in the All Star Entertainment event but to a player like Fox , that has never made it should mean something . Sabonis less so regardless of how deserving he is since he has made two already . Of course most players do have incentives in contracts based on All Star nods . That is always a factor .

RobHessing
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January 6, 2023 3:12 pm

For grins-

East: Embiid, Abedayo, Giannis, KD, Butler, Tatum, Mitchell, Brown, Lavine, Young, Hali, Harden. Notable omissions: Kyrie, Randle, DeRozan, Siakam, Garland.

West: Jokic, Zion, Markkanen, Sabonis, James, George, Curry, Booker, Lillard, Doncic, SGA, Morant. Notable omissions: Thompson, Edwards, Fox, Grant, KAT, Gobert, AD, Kawhi.

murraytant
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January 6, 2023 3:56 pm

I know this is out of order and out of sync but the Mavs cut Kemba Walker today. They hope that Jaden Hardy will get minutes. Remember him? the guy we passed on drafting in order to trade that pick to the Mavs for 2 second rounders. And he is averaging 29 ppg in G leagues. Is this another mistake in the second round: Gary Trent, Tillman and Kenyon Martin’s son were both traded ( their slots were)
I know MM wanted Keon Ellis and guessed he would be passed but Hardy was rated high.
I know KGuru has said that early second round picks like Hardy are poor value picks.

Kingsguru21
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January 7, 2023 1:13 pm
Reply to  murraytant

I know KGuru has said that early second round picks like Hardy are poor value picks.

I didn’t say that. What I said is that valuing 2nd rd picks is different from franchise to franchise and 2nd rd picks don’t hold the value a lot of fans believe they do. A few hit, but most don’t. If Hardy hits, that’s a development win for Dallas. More power to them. But I don’t think A) the Kings were in much of a position to take advantage of a Jaden Hardy and B) committing part of their MLE before knowing what would happen during the summer seemed difficult to justify.

For Dallas Hardy makes a ton of sense, and they committed part of their MLE to signing him. I just don’t think that’s the best use of resources for a team that already has A) Fox B) Mitchell, traded for Huerter and signed Monk in the same timeframe as Hardy was drafted.

But poor value picks? No, that’s simply not true. They can be pretty high value if those players develop quickly (think Isaiah Thomas). But mostly they don’t, and I don’t think there was much time or reason to expect a 2nd rd pick was going to do much for Sac as long as winning every night was the goal.

Adamsite
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Nostradumbass 14
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January 6, 2023 4:29 pm

Not surprising.

NowLoveThemOnceAgain
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January 6, 2023 5:41 pm

A real democracy: NBA lets fans vote once per day–on their crappy, clunky VOTE platform. Now THAT’S a “rigged election.” MNBAGA

andy_sims
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January 9, 2023 11:01 am

Once a day would be an improvement. What they have is once every twenty-fours, so if your intent is to vote each day, but forget, and get your vote in at 1130pm, then you’d need to be up the following night if you don’t want to miss a day.

Admittedly, these are not Earth-shattering problems, but just another example of how disinterested the NBA is in making the user-experience as easy as possible.

AnybodyButBagley
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January 6, 2023 7:34 pm

Sabonis definitely is not winning this popularity contest but he is clearly one of the best players in the NBA.

Fox isn’t going to win the popularity contest and is definitely not in the top twenty guards in the NBA.

Jman1949
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January 6, 2023 8:58 pm

Based on the Player Impact Estimate on the nba.com stats site, DeAaron ranks 7th among Western Conference guards who have played at least 20 games this season. Ahead of him are Luka, Steph, Ja, SGA, Dame, and Booker.

If you include guards from both conferences, he ranks 16th.

AnybodyButBagley
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January 8, 2023 11:35 am
Reply to  Jman1949

Close enough.

How many go the guards ranked below him actually play defense?

Fox is far from an NBA all star.

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