Jeff Van Gundy had another very Jeff Van Gundy-like suggestion during Saturday’s ABC broadcast.
As the Golden State Warriors played the Brooklyn Nets, Van Gundy, who was calling the game, gave a wild suggestion on the air for how the NBA should fix their voting system for the All-Star Game.
Van Gundy said that an even 20 percent vote should be split among five groups: fans, players, media members, referees, and “analytics” people. He also suggested that the team with the best record in each conference should automatically have an All-Star starter and that all players in the All-Star Game must have played at least 40 percent of their team’s minutes.
As it stands right now, fans carry 50 percent of the vote, while players and media have 25 percent each. That led to Andrew Wiggins, who played in Saturday’s game, getting an unlikely start in this year’s All-Star Game (thanks in part, interestingly enough, to a music star).
Meanwhile, neither the No. 1 seed in the West nor the No. 1 seed in the East got a single All-Star Game starter. That drew some major scrutiny from fans.
Van Gundy’s suggestion to give a say in All-Star voting to both referees and analytics people (“because we need facts,” he said) is a bit zany though. But it wouldn’t be a Jeff Van Gundy take if it wasn’t a little over the top.
Photo: Feb 5, 2016; Dallas, TX, USA; ESPN NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy watches the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs at the American Airlines Center. The Spurs defeat the Mavericks 116-90. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
