Not a 2015 All-Star
January 30, 2015
Dallas Maverick's legend Dirk Nowitzki has missed out on a place at the NBA All-Star game on February 15 after voting by fans and coaches.
Each year in a showcase event, the National Basketball Association allows fans to vote for who they want to star in a game involving the best of the league's players. Fans' votes are the deciding factor in the five starters for the Western and Eastern conference teams, before the coaches of each team select the reserve players.
36-year old legend Nowitzki received 292,557 votes, making him the ninth-most voted for player in the Western Conference frontcourt (including power forwards and centers). Coaches then didn't select the German, who is the seventh highest scoring NBA player of all time, to be a reserve in the game.
Nowitzki is a 12-time NBA All-Star and regarded as not just the best foreign player the league has ever seen, but one of the best overall.
The way the showcase game is voted for has come under scrutiny in recent years, with fans being able to vote for any players they wish, meaning many smaller-name players in good form, still miss out.
Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, the only team Nowitzki has represented in the NBA, has said fan voting should be removed from the process. The outspoken owner said the 1.5 million votes that Golden State's Stephen Curry received was evidence that the "system's broken, absolutely, positively broken."
"And fans are allowed to vote more than once, right?" Cuban asks. "That's embarrassing."
The NBA All-Star game is set to take place on February 15 in Madison Square Garden, in New York.
apc/al (AP, DPA)