Kyrie Irving has no right being in the All-Star Game over Darius Garland

Cleveland Cavaliers’ Darius Garland deserves an All-Star nod over Kyrie Irving.

Kyrie Irving has no right to be in the 2022 All-Star Game. Period. End of discussion. Not only is he having an unimpressive year, shooting just 30% from the three-point line and averaging 17 points in his three games so far, but, as already mentioned, he has only played three games. Despite that he had 148,530 votes on Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland on Jan. 6, 2022.

This is a joke and a further example of why fan votes should be eliminated from All-Star game consideration. Fans are not unbiased as a whole. Sure, there are some in each fandom who are, but as a whole, they are not. That’s the whole point of professional sports across the world; to root for your favorite club.

All-Star votes are nothing more than a popularity contest and when we consider who the “best” is in the game, a player’s popularity has no businesses being factored in. Now, if the All-Star Game was less tied to one’s Hall of Fame credentials, then fine. Put the most popular guys in the game and call it a day. That’s not how it is, though. Players who go to All-Star Games get paid more, their profile goes up, their more likely to get to the Hall of Fame, win year-end awards, etc.

Fans should have no say over stuff like that, yet they do by being able to influence the fan votes of the All-Star Game rosters. A good rule change should see players needing to play 70% of games to be eligible for the All-Star Game and then be up for post-season awards. This would reward healthy, impactful players who aren’t as popular over the Irvings of the league.

Since 70% is the threshold needed to be eligible for the scoring title, it should be the threshold to be eligible for every award unilaterally.

Darius Garland has been impactful for the Cleveland Cavaliers

Darius Garland has outplayed Kyrie Irving so far this year. You can lean hard on the “only played three games” arguments but that’s part of the point. Irving has missed all but three games this year. There’s no way you can argue, that in this season, Irving is more deserving than Garland. If Garland loses out to someone like Tyler Herro, that’s fine. Herro’s been impactful all year and is a good candidate.

Irving is not a good candidate. Garland had outperformed him in every meaningful metric with Irving only putting up 17 points, 3.5 assists and five rebounds per game on .458/.308/1.000 shooting splits (with just 1.7 free throw attempts per). Compared that to Garland’s 19.5 points, 7.5 assists, and 3.2 rebounds, on .464/.376/.915 shooting splits.

Garland should absolutely be in the 2022 All-Star Game due to his impact on the Cavaliers alone, but he should absolutely go in over someone like Irving, who’d be going in on name value alone.