Mark Cuban is convinced the answer to what he sees as the NBA’s anemic All-Star Game voting system lies in allowing the Mark Cubans of the world to dictate all the rules.
The always outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner, the man who seems to have never encountered an issue he doesn’t have a solution for, is unwavering in his assertion All-Star weekend needs to be completely taken out of the hands of the only people who have ever made it matter. And, as you might expect, that resolution totally revolves around allowing The Shark Tank judge to call more of the shots.
Cuban is adamant the job of picking All-Star starters should be left to coaches and GMs and taken away from “apathetic” fans he feels have unquestionably proven themselves not interested enough and arguably not knowledgeable to get the job done. Cuban likewise wants to keep the current policy in place where coaches and GMs select the 14 reserves that compose the rosters and complete the magical weekend extravaganza that nonetheless would surely still be branded as ode to all the fans of Hoops Nation.
“In context of everything, that’s no votes,” he said of the 1,513, 324 top vote-getter and Golden State Warriors star guard Stephen Curry amassed this season.” “That’s such a small number considering all the different options you have to vote that it’s almost embarrassing. And fans are allowed to vote more than once, right? No one even tried to hack it. That’s how bored they are.”
And apparently only Mark Cuban is qualified to come up with a kind of master plan to keep the masses enthused and ingratiated. Yeah, yeah, I know Cuban is neither a coach nor GM, thus on the surface still rendering his voice largely mute in the face of the kind of system he is not advocating for.
But Cuban, shrewd and skillful manipulator that he is, also knows that the mere creation of such a platform almost assures it would be just a matter of time before someone as loud and demonstrative as him would have greater input. He knows that among all the front office mouthpieces across the league, his voice resonates as one of the most pronounced, all but guaranteeing at some point and time his sentiments will be that much more widely heard and circulated.
In all his ranting, Cuban conveniently ignores the fact that the league maintains All-Star voting is actually up by 28 percent this year despite the window for voting being decreased by nearly a month and every NBA player now being eligible for the ballot.
“We have that few votes, you’re going to get one team or one player or one part of the world that skews everything,” argued Cuban. And yet, in the same voice, he’s convinced the answer lies in having just one body call all those shots and beyond?
In then end Mark Cuban, world renowned executor that he is, has to know he’s only Mark Cuban because he’s Mark Cuban. He needs to remember the first rule of salesmanship is and will always be you got to give the people what they want.
