Warriors Fans Ballot-Stuffing for Zaza

Published on 6-Jan-2017 by CJ

Football - NFL    NFL Daily Update

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Warriors Fans Ballot-Stuffing for Zaza

Seems like the NBA learned from last year's NHL All-Star game.

That's more than the NHL can say, as they didn't really learn from their own experience the year before that.

The purpose of these exhibitions is for fans to see their sport's big names come together without the guilt of rooting for a super team.

This year, if NBA fans get their way, they'll be seeing the best of the best play on one court.

And Zaza Pachulia.

Recently released All-Star fan voting showed Zaza as second only to fellow Warriors teammate Kevin Durant in votes for the Western Conference frontcourt.  

More amazing is the fact that the dude has a near 100,000-vote lead over the No 3 spot, currently held by Spurs' star forward Kawhi Leonard.

Besides Leonard, the Warriors big is also ahead of such talents as Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, Karl-Anthony Towns, and even his fellow Dubs teammate, Draymond Green.

The Georgian center is averaging a mere 5.2 points and 5.8 rebounds in 17.7 minutes per game. Compare this to arguably the best center in the league: the Grizzlies' Marc Gasol.

The Spaniard's averaging 19.7 points and 6.0 rebounds in 33.6 minutes per game.

While Zaza has close to 440,000 votes, Gasol has under 98,000 fan votes.

What Zaza lacks in stats and production, he more than makes up for with swagger. Check out his dance moves:

Sure, Pachulia's by far Golden State's weakest link-- besides the franchise's name, of course -- but who cares?

If All-Star games were really about having the league’s top players on the court, Kobe Bryant shouldn’t have been there last year.  

Despite having the eighth-ighest amount of votes, Zaza could still be denied an All-Star roster spot.

Fans only count for 50% of the overall vote, with the media and players splitting the other 50%. In order for Zaza to make it to New Orleans, both the media and the players must vote him as at least one of the top 10 of Western conference forwards.

This is due to aggregate scoring, ie- a combination of fan, media, and player votes.

Think of this as the Electoral College trying to stop the NBA equivalent of a John Scott situation.

Gotta admit, though, that worked out rather well.

Looks like the NBA's foiled ZaZa from doing the same thing ... if he could do the same thing.