Is Kobe Bryant’s Starting Position Well-Deserved?

The voting for the NBA All-Star game serves as a litmus test for how the audience sees players. There are always deserving candidates who have to be voted in by the coaches after the fans choose fun performers over efficient ones, leading to debates about whether the honor means anything at all outside of how popular someone is. Voting started on Dec. 11 and the first early results were made public on Christmas Day. A week later, the second ballot returns are in and there is a lot to discuss about them:

Not much has changed since the first results were released. LeBron James and Stephen Curry are still leading the East and the West in votes. Anthony Davis is the only other player to accrue more than 700,000 votes while Kobe Bryant is right there with 694,665.

As things stand the starters remain the same:

Eastern Conference

John Wall (Washington Wizards)

Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat)

LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks)

Pau Gasol (Chicago Bulls)

Western Conference

Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors)

Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers)

Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans)

Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers)

Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies)

All the starters seem entrenched in their spots. Dwyane Wade has expanded his lead over Kyrie Irving, who trailed him by less than 30,000 votes in the first return. Kevin Durantstill ranks fifth among West frontcourt players, surely a product of him missing time with injuries. If he continues to have performances like the one he had on Wednesday against the Suns, soon he will get a boost that could propel him past Tim Duncan and Marc Gasol. There are cases to be made for Jimmy Butler and Chris Bosh as starters in the East, but overall NBA fans have gotten things right. Except for one instance.

The biggest injustice remains Kobe Bryant edging out James Harden for a starting spot. Bryant has thousands of loyal followers — some who are willing to drive to Temecula over Twitter arguments — and his “Mamba army” is coming through with plenty of votes. Kobe is also well known and beloved internationally, which only helps in this type of contest. Harden has been so much better than Bryant this season, however, that his omission as a starter stands out as a glaring mistake by the voting public. Of course, the All-Star Game is an exhibition in which entertainment value is the driving force. So if the audience wants to watch Kobe start, that’s what they’ll get.

All-Star weekend will be held in Brooklyn from Feb. 13-15. Voting ends on Jan. 15. To vote visit nba.com/allstar