By Chris Agar (Whetstone staff writer)

Recently, the NBA All-Star teams were released to the public. Some interesting things happened during the fan voting process

For one, Allen Iverson, who has only played 24 games this season, is the East’s starting point guard. Not only is his team out of playoff contention, Iverson hasn’t been much of an “answer” to Philly’s problems, averaging a mere 14.6 points a game (compared to 26.7 during his career).

For a long time, it looked like fan favorite Tracy McGrady was headed to Dallas as well, despite only playing in six games this year. Right now, he’s banished by the Houston Rockets and isn’t playing at all. Luckily, the fans got a reality check and voted in Steve Nash as the second guard on the West team.

But this raises an important question about fan voting in the All-Star Game and whether we should be able to have 100 percent of the vote for the starters.

I know that the All-Star Game is for the fans and the fans should see whom they want to see. However, the point of the All-Star Game is to reward those having amazing seasons.

Look at a guy like David Lee (19-11-3). The 6-foot-9-inch center started in all 45 games for the Knicks, (he really should be a power forward if the Knicks had a true center), averages a double-double, and is the primary reason the Knicks are in the hunt for the 8th and final playoff spot in the East this year.

I know I may be biased as a Knicks fan (I wrote in Danilo Gallinari when I voted for my All-Stars this year), but Lee is playing out of his mind and deserves a spot. In my opinion, the starting point guard spot should go to Chicago’s Derrick Rose (who got selected as a reserve), leaving a spot open for David Lee. It’s not fair for him to be having the type of season he’s having and be left out of the All-Star festivities.

So what can the NBA do? They can’t take away fan voting and I wouldn’t want them to. I enjoy voting for the starters. I love watching NBA All-Star Weekend. It’s the only All-Star game worth watching (I’m looking at you, Pro Bowl).

One thing they can do is, require a player to play a certain amount of games to be eligible for All-Star voting.

What would be the big deal to say that a guy has to play 35 games to be on the All-Star ballot? Why was T-Mac there to begin with? Six games all year isn’t enough time to accumulate the stats needed to make the team.

The NBA makes the egregious mistake of opening the ballots shortly after the season starts and all the usual suspects (LeBron, Kobe, Nash, Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, etc.) get voted in while underappreciated guys (to the casual fan, not the die-hard fan) like David Lee and Chris Kaman are overlooked. Ballots should open a couple of months into the season so we have some idea of who’s worth it.

It seems every year there’s controversy over someone making the All-Star Game simply by reputation instead of actually putting together a good year. They have to do something to change it.

Maybe they could split the starter selections between the fans and coaches. That way a voice of reason could help balance out the blind support fans have. All I know is that they got to do something.