NBA: 25 Least-Deserving NBA All-Stars

The NBA All-Star Game is always a great source of controversy over who was picked and who wasn’t, but these are the 25 least-deserving picks since a major rule change in 1974.

The NBA All-Star Game began as a response to a scandal that rocked the entire sport in the early 1950s and has grown into one of the premier events—not just in basketball, but in all of sports—each year.

College basketball had been rocked by a point-shaving scandal, with major New York City powers City College of New York, Manhattan College, New York University and Long Island University all having players arrested for accepting cash payments from gamblers in exchange for fixing point spreads.

The scandal later spread nationally, with players at Bradley, Kentucky and Toledo all convicted in connection with the probe.

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But the damage wasn’t limited to the college game. The fledgling National Basketball Association, then just in its second year after a merger between the National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America, was also being hit hard at the gate as fans questioned the legitimacy of the sport.

Haskell Cohen, a publicist for the NBA, wondered if an All-Star Game—similar to the one Major League Baseball had held for nearly two decades—could provide a salve for the self-inflicted wounds.

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Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown took the idea and ran with it, hosting the first All-Star Game at Boston Garden in 1951.

“It was at the time of the college scandals and basketball had a black eye,” Brown said later, per NBA.com. “Things were going so badly that even my wife wanted me to get out of the business. But I thought the All-Star Game would be a good thing. I told the league I would take care of all the expenses and all the losses if there were any.

“Even up until the last week, the game was in doubt. A few days before the game, Maurice Podoloff, the commissioner, called me on the phone and asked me to call it off. He said that everyone he had talked to said it would be a flop and that the league would look bad.”

Instead, some 10,094 fans filled the Garden to see the East All-Stars beat the West All-Stars, 111-94, behind the MVP efforts of the Celtics’ own Ed Macauley.

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The game wasn’t without a bit of irony. Alex Groza of the Indianapolis Olympians was the high scorer for the West with 17 points.  Later that year, he was banned for life by the NBA after he was convicted of receiving money from gamblers to fix games while playing at the University of Kentucky.

Since then, the game has grown, both as an event and as a lightning rod for controversy over who was selected and who wasn’t.

Until 1974, starters were chosen by sportswriters and broadcasters who covered the NBA. Since 1974-75, the starters have been voted in by fans. Reserves are chosen by a vote of coaches in each conference, with injury replacements made by the commissioner when necessary.

Virtually every year, there are players elected or selected who don’t appear to deserve the bid, while others are excluded even though their performance indicates they should have been picked.

This piece will look at the 25 least-deserving All-Star selections. These choices were not merely the worst selections, but also took into account the context of the pick, primarily other players who could/should have been chosen.

Next: The Winner Got The Spoils