NBA All-Star voting is now closed to fans, as we learned the starters Thursday night and we’ll learn the reserves next week.
LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the captains of their respective conferences, Hawks guard Trae Young had an awesome moment with his mom when he heard his name called as a starter, and a number of big-name players will fill out the starting lineups.
But we also learned something else – that NBA fans need to stand up and take a bow for what they did for both Lakers guard Alex Caruso and Celtics center Tacko Fall, because their efforts were incredible.
Those two players will not be starters in the All-Star Game. In fact, they won’t play any part in the All-Star Game because one (Caruso) is only a role player and the other (Fall) has played most of his basketball this year with the Maine Red Lobsters in the G League.
But Caruso and Fall became fan favorites and the movement to mess with the NBA’s voting system became a fun thing to follow as voting results were released each week over the past month.
The fans came out in droves for these players, which is too good.
Caruso finished with 1,284,932 votes, which was good four FOURTH among Western Conference guards. He had more votes than guys like Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Donovan Mitchell, Devin Booker, Ja Morant, and D’Angelo Russell, which is incredible. Caruso hasn’t started a single game this year and is averaging 5.5 points a contest in a little over 19 minutes a game.
Fall, the 7-foot-5 fan favorite in Boston, finished with 947,378 votes, which had him in sixth place in the Eastern Conference frontcourt rankings. That’s wild when you consider he’s only played in 22 MINUTES of NBA action this season and has 17 total points. But fans made it known that it would be fun just to have his name mentioned in this All-Star voting.
All these votes for two guys who don’t deserve to play in the All-Star Game brought people together on the internet for something silly, which, if you spend any time on the internet these days, is rare. People had fun getting behind a cause that wasn’t serious, didn’t have anything to do with politics, and didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.
Sometimes we just have to have a little goofy fun in what is becoming an even more wild of a world.
Voting for Caruso and Tacko did just that and now all I can do is tip my cap to the all the NBA fans who did their basketball duty.
Bravo, folks. Bravo.
Thursday’s biggest winner: This dude at the World Indoor Bowls Championships.
I didn’t know this sport was even a thing until I saw this unbelievable highlight on Thursday morning and now I want to watch this all the time. Englishman Nick Brett should be worldly hero for the shot he pulled off at a big moment in a match at the World Indoor Bowls Championships. I mean, this was one of the most bananas things I’ve seen in quite some time. What a legend.
Quick hits: Eli and Peyton to MNF?… Florio’s idiotic take on late hits… Dwight Howard wants Kobe’s help… And more!
– My pal Charles Curtis is right – we need Eli and Peyton Manning to take over MNF for ESPN.
– ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio was rightly crushed for saying the 49ers should take some late hits on Patrick Mahomes.
– Dwight Howard is going to be in the dunk contest and he’s hoping Kobe Bryant can give him some help.
– Jalen Hurts and Nick Saban had a sweet reunion at the Senior Bowl.
– A referee’s terrible call spoiled a wild Division III buzzer-beater. Come on, ref!
(Follow me on Twitter at @anezbitt. It might change your life. Just don’t tell me about your fantasy team.)