Bradley Beal, bypassed for Carmelo Anthony as Kevin Love’s All-Star injury replacement said, “The process of it does not make sense.”
But maybe there was a logical process.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver picks All-Star injury replacements. And what are his criteria? Or perhaps more accurately, what’s his criterion?
Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press:
Re: Beal comments. Adam Silver went with coaches' votes when making injury pick. Carmelo, still very respected by opponents, was next up.
— Brian Mahoney (@briancmahoney) February 16, 2017
Silver has said he deferred to the coaches’ vote for past All-Star injury replacements.
The big question: Would Silver have chosen Beal or anyone else if that player, not Anthony, were next-highest in coaches’ voting?
Anthony has major name recognition and plays in the NBA’s biggest market. I’m sure the league’s business partners aren’t upset about his inclusion.
Maybe Silver would’ve followed the coaches no matter what, but we can never know. That’s a drawback to the closed-door system. The league could always codify using the coaches’ vote into a formal rule, and that would end most suspicions (though not all, because the coaches’ vote is not revealed beyond the actual selections). But that would remove control from Silver.
I think Beal’s concerns are off-base. But I definitely don’t know that.
