East fans on the mark, West fail the bias test

Fans rarely get it right - they are fans, and they pull for their team, their players. So expecting a fan vote to determine a proper all-star team seems a bit daunting.

The NBA has ended its all-star paper voting. The on-line voting ends next weekend. The NBA has already made its final update public, so there is nothing left but the announcement. And indications are, the fans are not going to botch this up too badly, particularly in the East.

Current voting leaders to start for the East are guards Dwyane Wade of Miami and Derrick Rose of Chicago; centre Dwight Howard of Orlando; and forwards LeBron James of Miami and Amar'e Stoudemire of New York.

Here's a tip of the cap - the fans go a perfect five-for-five in East.

In the West, however, things are more challenging. Current leaders are guards Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Chris Paul of New Orleans; centre Yao Ming of Houston; and forwards Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City and Carmelo Anthony of Denver.

You cannot argue with Bryant, but the rest are suspect. Deron Williams, the Utah point guard, has been more slightly consistent and a better scorer (22.0 points per game) than Paul.

Centre is a problem. Yao has missed most of the season. I prefer Pau Gasol of the Lakers. He is technically not a centre, but started in the middle while Andrew Bynum was out.

I would also prefer Kevin Love of Minnesota and Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas as the forwards, both of whom have had greater impact.