PBA All-Star team selections going down as a popularity contest

The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) All-Star balloting is always a popularity contest. It certainly has been and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

However, it cannot be denied that it has become more divisive in the age of the internet and analytics – with individual statistics now more accessible to fans which can lead to casual wrangling of who deserves to be on the team or not.

“I admit that,” PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial told the Inquirer about the chatter over All-Star snubs swirling on social media. “But that’s how the voting process works – it’s always controlled by the fans.

“It’s been like that for a long time. And that may have been the case for [National Basketball Association],” he added.

Terrafirma’s Juami Tiongson and Converge’s Maverick Ahanmisi – this season’s tear-jerkers – have emerged as the poster children of this year’s exit from the show.

Cracked guards

The duo, along with Don Trollano of NLEX, have been considered by some social media users as worthy of All-Star nods while raising eyebrows in the inclusion of former two-time Most Valuable Player James Yap, who has barely played this season, Gian. Mamuyac and Nards Pinto Ginebra, another point guard who came off the bench mainly as a defense for his loved ones.

Tiongson said it would be nice to be recognized in the league’s best playing contest. But Ahanmisi only said that she was not interested in the wedding ceremony.

The Terrafirma playmaker continues to play well even a year after winning the Best Player Award. FiberXers guards, meanwhile, are seeing a resurgence in the game after years of inactivity.

Despite the stark contrast in the predicaments, the two reached to hold the same – one that is equal to the leader of the league.

“Let’s be real: People don’t like me like that,” Tiongson said Saturday. “I’m not popular. Guys like me don’t really win. And that’s just the way it is. The fans decide who they want to see, and the players they want to watch. That’s the way it is.”

Meanwhile, Pinto said he was aware of the criticism surrounding the other players they deserved.

“What happened was just beyond my control,” Pinto, in Filipino, told the Inquirer in a separate interview, minutes before the Gin Kings played Blackwater Sunday night at the PhilSports Arena.

Slot in question

Pinto received 1,146,069 votes after two weeks of voting that ended on February 15, good for 23rd among the 24 players chosen to participate in the classic exhibition that returns after a four-year absence.

This is despite Pinto’s numbers of 6.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.0 steals in the Philippine Cup and 2.4 points, 1.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 0.6 steals in the Commissioner’s Cup Geneva.

“We all know that there are players who deserve my place, but I was chosen by the fans,” Pinto said. “People who think I don’t deserve to play, that’s their opinion and we can’t do anything about it. I’m just blessed to be selected.

“This is why I don’t want to participate. It’s a popularity contest,” Ahanmisi said, also on Saturday. “Those who deserve better are not even chosen because they are overshadowed by big names and I don’t support them.

“I don’t want to be a part of that,” the one-time champion and two-time winner of the Hurdle Challenge added. “That’s just me. There is no knocking for people who want to be a part of it. But I’ve seen too many players who deserve it and never make it. So I just don’t want to be a part of that.

past victim

The 2019 edition had more glaring snubs in Sean Anthony, Matthew Wright, Christian Standhardinger and Ian Sangalang.

“What we can do is make every staging different, apply some tweaks to the format of how it plays. But really, what should we do about the way the league’s fans vote?” Marcial said.

“Are we really going to limit the list? Put certain players in place of people who get real votes? I think that’s even more problematic,” he added.

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