All Star games in sports were always seen as a big spectacle in sports, the idea of taking the best players in the league and putting together two teams to play each other seems to be a fool proof idea. However slowly but surely these games have been diminished to the point where they borderline circus. The Pro Bowl is a joke, the NHL no one cares about the all-star game, let alone knows when it’s on, even though the skills competition is very entertaining. MLB all-star games are seen as the only important one, considering home field advantage is on the line for the World Series, and the home run derby is always a great spectacle to watch. The NBA all-star weekend has become a sort of joke, the game is filled with players laughing at each other and dogging it until the 4th quarter where it becomes semi entertaining. The slam dunk contest is filled with no names trying to bring the hoop down when the stars and real dunk artists sit and watch, and the three point contest is the same and has the best watching and not participating.
One of the main problems behind all-star woes is fan voting. Fans vote big names and biased views based on home town players. I think it is a great thing to have the fans have a partial say in who they watch, however when we have Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett starting the all-star games this year, that is a joke considering Hack a Howard has been a shell of his former self and Garnett is in his glory days with his best game well behind him and when Chris Bosh and Tyson Chandler both have better numbers and are coming off the bench. And the NBA is not the only culprit, MLB might even be worse, we have 8 Yankees on the team every single year, also the 1 person per team rule is a killer when something is on the line and a team like the Astros must have representation. Pablo Sandoval starting over David Wright or Chase Headley when he played half as many games is a joke.
Taking fan voting completely away is not the answer; I will not go as far to say the word electoral college. However I think that they should account for 50% of the vote and the sports writers should hold some weight like the hall of fame and should ultimately decide who starts the game. These games must get back to a respectable level of play and we to get the best to participate, there is no excuse besides injury to not play if asked.