Democracy in action

A few weeks ago, we discussed the alleged "snubbing" of Milwaukee Bucks rookie Yi Jianlian from the All-Star ballot. Only so many stars fit onto a single ballot, after all, and as we said then, Yi is great for a rookie but he has hardly earned the noble title of "All-Star".

But Yi's absence from the official ballot has hardly kept the people from expressing their desire to see him take the floor for February's gala in New Orleans. All-Star voting is a crude exercise in democracy, as fans from around the globe can log on to nba.com and vote for their favorite stars. And no American democracy would be complete without the ever-hopeful choice of the "write-in vote", the option to reject all ballot-worthy candidates and choose whoever you want to fill a position.

Yi, for one, was not deemed ballot-worthy. But like every other NBA player, his name exists on the write-in scroll-down menu at the bottom of the ballot. Write-in candidates are typically the longer-than-long shots and a write-in vote, more than anything, is an act of defiance directed at a list of deadbeat candidates. No write-in candidate - in the NBA or otherwise - has ever really made a significant splash in the final election results. But Yi has seemingly broken the mold - his write-in votes, which last week numbered nearly 100,000, rank him fifth among Eastern Conference forwards, ahead of actual former All-Stars like Rashard Lewis and Caron Butler.

Yi's votes are still hundreds of thousands behind position-leaders Kevin Garnett and LeBron James and Yi would have to overtake one of them to actually make the team. But his numbers are still remarkable as he is the only write-in even in the running. Fans have organized write-in campaigns for other players like Antoine Walker and Shane Battier, but they have fallen far short of what Yi has accomplished with no official mobilization effort - Battier is actually on the ballot, and he still has less votes than Yi.

The chances of Yi pulling off a write-in upset are about as likely as Yao Ming not being voted a starter as he has been overwhelmingly each year since his rookie season. That is to say, it's in the hands of Chinese voters. Although there's no way to tell exactly where a player's votes come from, it's safe to assume Yi's write-in success comes mostly on the backs of his Chinese supporters, and maybe a Bucks fan or two. Fans can vote as many times as they want (once a day), so if the people really want to see Yi start for the East, it's only several hundred thousand votes away.

(China Daily 12/18/2007 page22)