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http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25144775/john-wall-wont-vote-for-nbpa-players-choice-awards
Washington Wizards guard John Wall said Friday he won't vote in the Players Choice awards, the NBPA's version of the annual awards including MVP. The union released anonymous ballots last week and will announce the winners this summer. From the New York Post:
“No,” John Wall said when asked if he had voted yet, “and I probably won't.”
Wall's argument against players voting for awards was fairly straightforward: he thinks the media does a decent job of handling the awards, and that players wouldn't be able to shake their personal biases against opponents when it came to voting for their peers.
“It doesn't matter to me,” said Wall, who sat out to rest some nagging aches and pains before the playoffs start. “The media and the fans, those people have their own opinion. That's the key part. They're watching from the inside out.
“As basketball players, we know who the players are, but sometimes your pride and ego come in and you don't want to see that person get an award, so it don't really bother me.
“(With) us making votes, you're going to have people saying they are MVP and the best player in the league, and so it's never going to be a fair race, in my opinion.”
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This attitude's not going to earn him much popularity in the NBPA meetings, but his honesty is pretty admirable. There's at least a thin veil of an attempt at objectivity with the media, despite several team broadcasters and employees having votes. There's an attempt to take the process seriously. That may not be necessary, since it's just awards. But it has historical weight, can influence contracts, etc. It has a lot of weight. And there's a significant chance that the players will simply vote for "their guy" or "their friend" or just against the guy they don't like, on principle.
That's certainly possible with the media as well, but the percent chances are lower.
I think it's fine for the players to have their own awards. I just hope they really put some thought into it. Maybe the media is completely lost in the woods on these things, like some players say, but it's refreshing to see a player who doesn't just buy into the groupthink on this. Of course, I'm media, so that could just be saying it's refreshing for a player to not think I'm a complete idiot. ___
low end crazy, eastside crazy, wild hunnids crazy, englewood crazy.
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