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U.S. NBA fans kinda miffed at Yi

Tuesday, 6th January 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

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Yi Jianlian (易建联) is getting under the skin of a lot of U.S.-based NBA fans this season. First, he was screwing up their fantasy teams with his many single-digit scoring nights. Then, it began to look more likely that there was truth to long-held suspicions about him being three years older than he says he is. Now he's threatening to make something of a mockery of the NBA All-Star game.

As of the third round of balloting, Yi had 959,324 votes in All-Star game voting, which is open to fans anywhere in the world. He trailed Boston's Kevin Garnett by about 150,000 votes, giving him a chance to pull ahead and into Garnett's second-place spot before balloting ended. This is despite being 21st in rebounding and 31st in scoring among Eastern Conference forwards. The top two vote-getting forwards in each conference will be starters on the All-Star team (starters will be announced January 24).

Yi is not the only player who has been targeted by complaints that he's getting more votes than are warranted by his on-court performance. Tracy McGrady, Gilbert Arenas and Greg Oden are just a few of the players who have been accused of getting votes based more on popularity than recent achievement. But Yi might be the player who has overachieved most in the balloting process.

Some have questioned whether Yi is simply getting a boost from the millions of NBA fans in China (and fans of Chinese origin living all over the world), or if there has been some tampering with the process. Either way, if Yi doesn't get voted in, he's very unlikely to appear in the All-Star game. Only the starting units are selected by fans.

Yi Jianilan image: Mingxingzhongguo.cn

Tags: basketball, NBA, Yi Jianlian