NBA all star voting results projection of voters habits?

I know the NBA all star ballot includes a wider demographic than other electoral votes (such as for Mayors or other public figures), but with the current voting statistics for the 2009 NBA All Star line ups, bias in many ways triumphs over dependability, productivity and pure statistical evidence.

the link below shows the latest installment of tallying of votes with a week left until voting officially closes. (scroll down until you see the tables)

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/01/08/010809allstarreturns/index.html

now if you were to go the NBA's official statistics page you will be able to compare the top vote getters to the top ranked players in various categories.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/Fantasy.jsp

A couple of top vote getters jump out at me: Yi, Iverson, Gilbert Arenas the famed blogger himself, Dalembert...just to name a few...but hell its all over the map.

I think cultural bias has alot to do with it on many different levels. It has to do with it in a patriotic way (e.g. Yi probably getting alot of votes from his vast, although concentrated, population of fans). However Yi Jianlian ranks nowhere near some of those who recieved far less votes on NBA.coms "Fantasy Ranked" group of Eastern conference forwards. Yi ranked 30th on the list compared to lower vote getters such as Danny Granger and Rashard Lewis. Or a marketed and iconist leaders (Iverson and Gilbert sounds about right). Iverson and Gilbert may be acredited top vote getters for Eastern Conference guards because of past success and heavy marketability they both have. Iverson had Reebok and his status as NBA's ferocious thug pug. While Gilbert has given us a couple fantasic seasons in Washington and some fantastic blogging, coining- phrases. and beyond. Oh and by the way in case you didn't know Gilbert hasn't done shit this season and has proposed taking extra time off to give his team a better draft position.

I can go on and on. I know that larger cities will generally pay more hommage to their hometown heroes, but why must the voting always be skewed like this. Wouldn't people want to see an All-Star game played by the games actual All-Stars? What is an All-Star to you. To me an All-Star should get it based on their productive abilities. NBA.coms stats page provides a great way of comparing guards, forwards, and centres between the league and conferences. The stats provide quick and easy projections for who should be the top all star canidates.

When voting is made this easy how do we continue to misrepresent a simple NBA All-Star game. Does harder voting such as for mayors and other heads get away from any of this sort of blind bias? Probably not.