Charles Barkley is a legend who is one of the most entertaining people in NBA. The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced on Thursday the starting lineup for the 2022–2023 All-Star game. When it was announced who would be playing in the game, former NBA great Charles Barkley voiced his disagreement with the team’s player choices.
According to Adam Lefkoe, who was filling in for Ernie Johnson at the time, Zion Williamson, a star for the New Orleans Pelicans, finished third in the player voting. Adam Lefkoe was taking over for Ernie Johnson. Domantas Sabonis, centre for the Kings, received third place in the media vote, while Anthony Davis, star for the Los Angeles Lakers, received third place with fans.
Zion Williamson, who is a standout for the Pelicans, was chosen to start the game because he received a high enough number of votes from both the media and the fans to finish in fourth place overall.
Charles Barkley expressed his discontent with the selection, stating that Zion should have been placed ahead of Domantas Sabonis and Lauri Markkanen in the order of the draft. Following the announcement, Barkley was quoted as saying, “I hope he doesn’t take this the wrong way, but from my standpoint, he’s missed too many games.”
Zion Williamson Was Chosen to Start the Game Because He Received Votes From Both the Media and the Fans
It’s just a matter of personal preference, but if it were up to me, I would have picked either Sabonis or Markkanen. He went on to say that the player who would start the All-Star game should not be someone who has missed more than half of the team’s games. Charles Barkley continued by saying, “I just don’t believe that it’s fair to miss 20 games in the first half of the season.“
Voting for the NBA All-Star game began on December 20 and continued through January 21. Overall, the fans receive 50% of the votes, the media receives 25% of the ballots, and active players receive 5% of the votes.
Each conference has one vote, which is distributed among its three frontcourt players, two guards, and two support players. NBA superstar LeBron James was selected as the next captain of the Western Conference after receiving the most votes among all players.
Lauri Markkanen and Domantas Sabonis both had a better record than Zion Williamson through the first few games of this season. The main player for the Jazz, Lauri Markkanen, has been having a fantastic year thus far.
Lauri Markkanen and Domantas Sabonis Both Had a Better Record Than Zion Williamson
This season, he has scored an average of 24.9 points per game thus far. Additionally, he has had a fruitful year in his working life. The rising star from Finland has been averaging more than 8 rebounds per game while shooting more than half his field goal attempts.
In addition to his scoring, he has been an essential part of the Jazz’s offence because he does not attempt as many field goals as other players do, leaving room for other players to shine.
This season, Domantas Sabonis, who plays centre and big man for the Sacramento Kings, has appeared in more than 45 of the team’s games. During the course of this season, he has posted a per-game average of 18.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 7.3 assists.
In addition to that, he has recorded six triple-doubles. It’s possible that the fact that Sabonis doesn’t play particularly thrilling games is one of the reasons why fans tend to disregard him when it comes to voting. Zion has played in only 29 games so far this season, but he has amassed a 26-point scoring average and a field goal percentage of over 60 percent.
