Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Soda Fountain, William Glackens, 1935

Andrew Wiggins was actually named an NBA All-Star starter thanks to finishing third among Western Conference frontcourt players in the fan vote, which accounts for 50% of the final tally. Player vote and media vote each take another 25%. Wiggins finished a pretty surprising fifth in the player vote and an even more surprising sixth in the media vote. (For the media vote, only eight players received a vote, so the lowest anyone could finish was ninth.)

Draymond Green finished third in the player vote and fourth in the media vote, and ended up at sixth in the fan vote. I explained why Wiggins was trouncing Green in the fan vote a couple weeks back. Had Green finished third in media vote (ahead of Rudy Gobert, who the media adores) and all else stayed the same, Wiggins would still be starting. Wiggins and Green would have tied had Green stayed fourth in media vote by Wiggins fell behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Deandre Ayton in the player vote, and the tie would have gone to the player with the higher fan vote, so Wiggins would still be in.

This is all to say that Wiggins narrowly got the third starting spot … but multiple things would have had to go differently for Green to get in there instead. Anyways, Draymond Green is injured and Andrew Wiggins is healthy. I imagine he’ll be the final pick among starters since the injured Kevin Durant is a captain. But it’s still a heck of an achievement! Kudos to Wiggins for getting to a position where this is even possible.

Here are a few other interesting or funny or brutal voting facts.

Yes, Andrew Wiggins beat Karl-Anthony Towns in the player vote.

This is so disrespectful. Wiggins is averaging 18-4-2 on efficient shooting for a really good team. Towns is averaging 24-9-4 on more efficient shooting for a good team. Players really don’t think that much of KAT … and just about none of them can stop him on the court. Towns did mercifully finish above Wiggins in the media vote … by a single tally. Oof. Karl-Anthony Towns is really good, folks!

KAT seems like a really good friend, too.

Jon Krawczynski @JonKrawczynski

KAT on Wiggins getting All-Star: "My vote was for him. ... We went to wars together out there. I just want to see him see the fruits of his labor."

January 28th 2022

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Zach LaVine trounced James Harden and Trae Young in the player vote.

Young will start alongside DeMar DeRozan, having edged LaVine in the fan vote and beaten him handily in the media vote. But players gave more credit to LaVine — he had 73 player votes to 46 for each of Harden and Young. In fact, Darius Garland was only one player vote behind Harden and Young!

Zero media votes for Luka Doncic. ...