Conspiracy, anyone?

The starting five for the NBA All Star teams from each conference are now set. In the Western Conference, something strikes me as odd. Just two weeks prior, guard Tracy McGrady was holding on to a decent lead of around 80,000 votes over Denver's Allen Iverson, who was stuck in 3rd place. Fast forward to yesterday when the starters were announced on TNT before the Spurs/Heat game, and look who passed McGrady. Iverson jumped ahead of McGrady by more than 10,000 votes in just two weeks time. That's a 90,000 vote swing in under 14 days.

Sounds like something shady going on, no? What I believe happened, and don't yet call me a conspiracy theorist, is that the NBA did not want a starting spot wasted on a player who was not deserving. In the past few days, Tracy McGrady talked about sitting the ASG out if the rules would allow, because he realized others were having superior seasons. Now, granted, McGrady has been battling injuries, but is still a fan favorite. However, it is true that he should be left off the roster, and now, by this stroke of luck, we won't have to worry about it. Does anyone else believe that the NBA set this up? David Stern and the other suits at the top saw this as a possibly terrible scenario. How can the NBA leave off someone who is rightfully deserved of the roster spot when McGrady clearly is not? How can Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, or Baron Davis sit home? And how would the public know what goes on behind closed doors anyway? Should we have a recount? I think Stern sat at his desk for about 4 days, clicking on Allen Iverson as many times as possible so that McGrady would be left off. Over 90,000 more voted in 14 days for AI than T-Mac.

For some reason, I just don't believe it.