Boston Celtics: Kemba Walker deserved to start over Kyrie Irving in All-Star Game

Kemba Walker will be representing the Boston Celtics in the All-Star game by making his fourth consecutive All-Star team, his first as a member of the Boston Celtics.

As we know, the All-Star game isn’t what it once was. Players are able to get enough votes just based off their popularity rather than stats. For example, Tacko Fall has appeared in just four games this season for the Boston Celtics but finished with the same weighted score as a regular player like Khris Middleton.

So maybe there’s more than just stats that are now factored into the All-Star equation.

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Kemba Walker finished third in the Eastern Conference’s All-Star voting behind guards Trae Young and Kyrie Irving. But after a stellar first half of the season, Walker has been named an NBA All-Star for the fourth consecutive year and will be starting in his second straight All-Star game for the East.

Despite having less fan votes, Kemba (2.0) ended up with a higher weighted score than Kyrie (4.0).

Since joining the Boston Celtics, Kemba Walker has taken over as one of their leaders and biggest play-makers on the team. He’s able to do what a true veteran does, which is to make the players around him better and control the pace of a game.

Walker is averaging 21.7 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists per game this season (38 games).

Everything Kemba has displayed this season is what a true All-Star does for his team. That’s the second part to the aforementioned All-Star equation. How a player positively impacts his team, rather than bring the overall moral of the team down.

Similar to the way Kyrie Irving acted in Boston and with the way he’s currently acting in Brooklyn, is everything an All-Star is not and it showed in the player/media portion of the voting. Irving ranked below both Walker and Young in player and media votes.

The third part to the All-Star equation needs to be how durable and reliable a player is to his team. Kemba Walker only missed one game after leaving the court by the services of a stretcher due to a neck/head injury.

Walker has been incredibly reliable this season and the rare occasions that he’s not playing, he’s on the sideline coaching up his teammates and making sure they’re just as prepared as if he was playing.

With that being said, both Walker and Young have only missed five games this season due to various injuries and reasoning’s.

Kyrie Irving has only played in 16 games this season and has missed 27 games in total throughout this first half of the season. The comments he made last week show that eventually personality trumps talent and if that’s true, then both Walker and Young are much better teammates and all around better people than Kyrie Irving.

The comments made by Irving versus the one made by Walker are not one that an NBA All-Star should say. This selfish and conceited type of behavior from Irving is what forces people to lose respect for him, including his NBA peers. Let’s compare the two.

"“I said it the other day, it’s an entertainment league and I think that I’ve put in a lot of work in this league to be up there whether I’m playing or not. And if you want to see an All-Star game, I’d vote for myself as well. I’m serious. Because I’m gonna go out there, we’re going to put on a show.” – Kyrie Irving, per Malika Andrews of ESPN“It’s exciting. I’ve come a long way so it’s a special honor to be able to start among the best players in the world. To be named a starter, it’s an unbelievable accomplishment. It means a lot. To me personally, there’s nothing more than the respect of the guys you play against every night, I have to thank those guys of course for voting me in.” – Kemba Walker, per John Karalis of MassLive"

All things considered, it wasn’t surprising Kemba Walker was able to edge Kyrie Irving as being voted the top guard by the players, which as Kemba pointed out is a “huge honor”.

Be sure to checkout Kemba Walker in the All-Star game on February 16th.