Charles Barkley wasn't impressed after LaMelo Ball led the NBA All-Star game voting among Eastern Conference guards. Ball is having a terrific season, averaging 30.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 7.4 assists, shooting 42.5%, including 34.6% from 3. However, Barkley believes Donovan Mitchell and Jalen Brunson deserve to be among the top players.
As it stands, Ball has 947,777 votes in the first fan returns, Mitchell is second at 718,084, and Brunson is fourth with 477, 253 votes. He is trailing Damian Lillard, who is third with 704,914 votes. Barkley jokingly drew a parallel between the Presidential election voting and All-Star voting after seeing these results.
"Y'all kidding me right now," Barkley said about the East guard voting returns on "Inside The NBA" on Thursday. "Are we serious right now? You know what this reminds me of? This damn Presidential election we just had, anything goes."
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Charles Barkley identifies as an Independent voter but said he was voting for Kamala Harris. However, Donald Trump won the battle after winning all seven swing states. Barkley was heavily critical of the Democrats' campaign, blaming their lack of a game plan for the loss.
"We still haven’t solved the immigration problem ... Never addressed inflation. Bringing all these stupid stars out to rally the vote, what was that? I love Beyoncé. That ain’t gonna make me vote a certain type of way ... You guys lost because y’all stupid . . ." Barkley said on "The Steam Room" podcast.
"It’s all our faults for not having a game plan. We’re not having concerts and rallies. People want solutions, they want money in their pocket, they want the border secure."
Charles Barkley proceeded to tell the Democrats to shut the "f**k" up after losing, claiming they lost the right to speak about the elections when they lost the battle.
Charles Barkley names one superstar who should be leading the NBA All-Star voting
Charles Barkley thinks Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should be the leading vote-getter for the NBA All-Star game this season. As of the first fan returns, Gilgeous-Alexander has 1,053,683 votes, the highest among Western Conference and Eastern Conference guards combined. Giannis Antetokounmpo heads the entire league with 1,710,639 votes.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the only backcourt player with over a million votes in the first returns. Barkley was satisfied but still wanted the OKC star to top the charts.
"I think Shai should be the leading vote-getter," Barkley said on Inside The NBA on Thursday. "But you said Giannis, Giannis is having a fabulous year also. But Shai man, what those guys are doing at Oklahoma City, it's incredible."
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the leading MVP candidates, averaging 31.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 6.1 assists, shooting 52.8%, including 35.1% from 3. The Thunder have the best record in the Western Conference as of Thursday, with 28 wins and five losses, trailing the Cleveland Cavaliers by one loss (29-4).
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