all-star results: something doesnt add up

I saw this interesting article on www.nola.com that noted that chris paul received 1.1 million votes to pass mcgrady on the all-star voting. here is the full link:

http://blog.nola.com/hornetsbeat/2009/01/new_orleans_hornets_guard_chri_2.html

This got me thinking - did david stern really screw the all-star selection process? well first chris paul got 1,059,161 votes on january 8 and finished with 2,134,798 votes, which means he got an additional 1,075,637 votes after january 8. yes, this is possible, but lets compare it with kobe's returns, who of course, would get more votes than paul (being kobe). kobe started with 1,903,798 votes and ended with 2,805,397 votes for an additional 901,599 votes. david stern do you really expect me to believe that more people voted for chris paul than kobe bryant within the last few days of all-star voting??

now first, while you can vote individually for all-stars, most votes are done online where you check in the 10 people you think should be all-stars. it would make much more sense for kobe getting more votes than paul, especially being much more popular in china.

lets assume for a moment, that china did not vote much after january 8. lets see if the results back that up. evidence number 2: yao ming. yao started off with 1,758,499 votes and finished with 2,532,958 votes for a difference of 774,459 votes. while it would be ridiculous to attribute this to china only, we have to of course assume that yao lost some votes to shaq and other good centers of the west. who did kobe lose his votes to?? why did he end up with just a little over 100,000 more votes than yao ming after january 8? bullcrap.

lets look at another case: Yi jianlian. Yi (can i call you Yi?) started of with 1,216,348 votes on january 8 and finished with just 1,813,829 votes, for only 597,481 votes after january 8. wow, what a coincidence then, that yi finished just a little over 200,000 votes short of kevin garnett. what a travesty it might have been had yi finished with just 200,000 more.

last case in point: dwight howard. the east center race is a joke, there is no center even close to dwight howard. but dwight started of with 2,102,368 votes and ended with 3,150,181 votes for a difference of 1,047,813 votes after jan 8. FTW!!! DWIGHT SUPERMAN HOWARD and just about everyone else got less votes than chris "freakin" paul in the returns! i didnt know chris paul was that popular!!!!

while this may seem to have nothing to do with the suns at first, i assure you it does. a'm'a'r'e stoudemire, everyones favorite sun got in when i believe no one - NO ONE in phoenix even likes the dude anymore. what a coincidence then, that the all-star game is in phoenix. this all-star selection process is a joke and stern should be embarrased. if your gonna cheat, you might have wanted to make it seem a little bit more believable mr stern, you stupid f***tard!