Los Angeles Lakers: Does Kobe Bryant Deserve An All-Star Spot?

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant leads the pack in voting for the 2016 NBA All-Star Game, but does he deserve a spot on the roster?

No matter your opinion of Kobe Bryant, here are three things we know to be indisputable facts: 1) This is Kobe Bryant’s last season, 2) Kobe Bryant is not having a very good season and 3) As of yesterday morning, Kobe Bryant led all players in All-Star voting with 719,235 votes — more than 200,000 more votes than the second-leading vote-getter, Stephen Curry.

The force (of nostalgia) is strong with this one.

Heading into his final season, all 20 of which he’s spent with the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s no surprise that the Kobe Stans have come out in full force to send the Black Mamba out in style. Ever since Bryant officially announced that this would be his final season and made peace with it, this team’s brutal 5-25 record has been a lot easier for everyone to bear.

Part of that has to do with Kobe’s better-late-than-never acceptance of a mentorship role. When D’Angelo Russell made that ugly game-tying shot against the Minnesota Timberwolves to force overtime a few weeks ago, Kobe was the first one off the bench to celebrate with him.

That scene was even more significant when it was revealed that it was Kobe himself who told head coach Byron Scott to give the youngsters a chance in crunch-time.

Part of it has to do with his newfound efficiency. Though Kobe is only averaging 17.2 points per game on 34.5 percent shooting this season (25.7 percent from three-point range on an unruly 7.2 attempts per game), he’s been much better lately.

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In the month of December, Kobe is averaging 18.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game on .385/.306/719 shooting splits — not great numbers, but far better than what he posted in his first month of the season.

His 31-point night against the Washington Wizards lifted the Lakers to just their third win of the season, while another 31-point throwback outing against the Denver Nuggets supplied Los Angeles with its fifth victory.

There have been flashes of vintage Kobe that are just too enjoyable to NOT soak up, especially with the knowledge that the end of an era is imminent.

The problem, however, is that Kobe Bryant is not deserving of an All-Star spot. Even if you don’t factor in his poor shooting and how many games it’s cost his team, a simple look at the Lakers’ 5-25 record shows they’re the most irrelevant team in the Western Conference.

In a vacuum, Kobe Bryant is not even close to being deserving of an All-Star spot, let alone the honor of being the leading vote-getter by such a wide margin. Put down your pitchforks, Lakers fans. You know somewhere deep, deep, deep down that it’s true.

Even KOBE was shocked by the news.

Here’s my problem with the NBA All-Star Game: too often it’s a popularity contest. That makes sense for a spectacle that involves no defense and is designed specifically for the fans, but for such an entertainment circus with little substance behind it, we prescribe an awful lot of importance to All-Star selections.

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Think about it. When you examine a player’s impact on the game and what kind of career he had, you look at how many All-Star appearances he had before you examine how many All-NBA teams he made. The All-Star Game seems more fun than looking up which 15 players were selected to All-NBA spots by the media in a given season.

In a certain sense, that’s fair. This league is driven by fan revenue before media coverage. If the widespread army of Lakers fans wants to see Kobe Bryant suit up for the All-Star Game one last time, it’s their right to vote for him.

But for a game like this to be such a significant part of players’ resumes, shouldn’t it matter that he’s taking up a spot that someone more deserving could be occupying? If we want the All-Star Game to matter, shouldn’t this be more troubling to NBA fans?

There are plenty of candidates more worthy than Kobe this season, and their case is even stronger when you consider some of them have never been there. Sure he’d like to go in his last season, but does he really need to go after being in the All-Star Game 17 times already?

The fact that Tony Parker has more All-Star votes than Eric Bledsoe shows that too many fans think this is a lifetime achievement award.

So my proposal centers around the question: Why can’t we have both?

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If the All-Star Game is about entertaining the fans with star-studded rosters, high flying dunks and as little defense as possible, nobody wants to really see Kobe, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan lugging their old butts up and down the court more than watching guys like Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Anthony Davis or Russell Westbrook do their thing.

However, that doesn’t mean guys like Kobe, Dirk, KG or Duncan have no place in the All-Star Game, especially as their careers wind down and we try to honor them one last time.

In my opinion, the only way to make everyone happy is to expand the All-Star roster to include one or two “lifetime achievement award spots” per conference for the older players that are no longer playing at an All-Star level, but are too popular to exclude from one of the NBA’s most entertaining weekends.

Players selected to one of these spots would be like an assistant coach of sorts. They wouldn’t have to ruin the game by playing too many minutes, they’d get that special designation as a team captain of sorts, and they’d still get to play in the game and enjoy a kind of curtain call. That’d also prevent more deserving players and future stars in the middle of breakout seasons from being excluded.

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It’s nothing personal against Kobe Bryant, and in my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging him one last time at All-Star Weekend. But until this sort of outside-the-box solution presents itself, we’re going to continue to see washed up, former stars occupy spots in the All-Star Game that should go to younger, more deserving players. Why can’t we do right by them both?