By Dan Wanat

By the time this article reaches the newsstand, the NBA All-Star game will have come and gone with little more than a ripple on the Richter scale.

Now with all the glory and prominence encompassing NBA All-Star weekend, comes the disappointment of isolated ostracism as the NBA’s most popular player is forced to watch the game next to Keanu Reeves. Jeremy Lin has taken the NBA by storm and it is just another reminder to why it should be mandatory for everybody in the world to love sports.

The storylines that sports produce are unpredictable and amazingly beautiful. No movie producer could have ever created a script in which a 6’3” Taiwanese point guard from Harvard, who was cut by two NBA teams already during the season, could statistically transcend Magic Johnson, Shaq and Michael Jordan but that’s what makes Jeremy Lin’s fable seem so impossible.

Lin has single-handedly made it “cool” to go to Harvard again; Lin’s made us think of Taiwan as more than just a place that has monopolized all the “Made in” tags on just about everything you own, and most importantly Lin is showing not only the Asian population, but everybody what it feels like to be an underdog and take the NBA by storm and its these ascending characteristics and popularity that entitle Jeremy Lin to be playing in the NBA All-Star game.

Now before I delve into the reasons why Jeremy Lin should be participating in the All-Star Game, I must digress with an opinionated disclosure on my overall views of fans voting for All-Star games. Plain and simple: I hate fan voting. Fan voting depreciates the statistical value of an individual’s season and turns an All-Star Game into nothing more than a popularity contest.

Letting fans decide these procedures meant that in 2011, Derek Jeter and his awful first half numbers were selected to promenade around the MLB All-Star game as if he actually deserved to be there. The list of these atrocious preferences can go on and on as fans painstakingly click on the most revered name on the all-star ballot rather than the players that actually deserve it.

The last reason I have an utter disdain for fan voting is that the Hall of Fame Selection Committee uses All-Star game appearances as a pillar of judgment unto which votes are cast. That would be like if an individual where applying to Harvard and fit all the educational and extra-curricular requirements needed but Harvard didn’t allow the student in because he didn’t win Prom King.

Phew! I feel a lot better now that that’s off my chest. Unfortunately, my rant cannot undo the current popularity based format of the All-Star game so whether I like it or not, the most popular players in the NBA are voted in. It’s safe to presume that Jeremy Lin is the most popular player in the NBA right now thus he needs to be in the All-Star game.

For this year’s All-Star game, fan voting ended on Feb. 1 while the game itself was not played until Feb. 26. In Jeremy Lin’s case, he didn’t even make his first career start until Feb. 6. With this being formulated, if the fan voting went until Feb. 14, for example, Linsanity would have been in full effect and Jeremy Lin would have absolutely been voted into the All-Star game.

Heck, it took the kid three NBA starts before his jersey was the highest selling jersey in the NBA. So I have no doubt the voters would have showed up in droves begging to make Lin a participant in the All-Star game.

His statistics through his first 11 career starts are all-star worthy. In Lin’s first five NBA starts, he broke Shaq’s all-time record for most points scored in his first five games by netting 136 points (27.2 ppg). In Lin’s last 12 games, which represents the only 12 games of his career in which he saw valuable minutes, Lin averaged 22.6 ppg and 8.7 apg.

From a “this season” standpoint and I know it’s a very small sample size in comparison, but just for argument’s sake, Derrick Rose is averaging 21.8 ppg and 7.7 apg on the season. In terms of the historical magnitude, Lin holds the record for most points and assists through a player’s first 12 career starts topping Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, and John Stockton.

I must re-emphasize that the NBA is a tough and rugged sport that is always evolving so a good 12 game stretch does not make or break a career, but if Jeremy Lin can continue producing at such a ridiculously high level than we may be witnessing a star in the making.

David Stern, David Stern, David Stern tsk tsk tsk. From a strictly marketing and business standpoint, it seems impossible not to have the inclusion of Jeremy Lin down in Orlando this weekend. Ever since David Stern has taken over as the commissioner of the NBA, his major goal has been the globalization of the game of basketball. What better ways to expand the probing tentacles of the NBA than to have Jeremy Lin play in the All-Star game?

The peaking interest of the NBA in Asia is at an apex that hasn’t been attained since Yao Ming entered the league.

Lin played in the Rookies versus Sophomore game and it received the highest rating in its history, and as I mentioned before Lin has had the highest selling jersey in the NBA for the past month. Why not take advantage of this popularity by thrusting Lin into the All-Star game and giving global fans even more incentive to watch and become enthralled not only with Lin but with all the other star players in the NBA?

At first, I was thinking that Stern was avoiding the inclusion of Lin because he would have to create an unprecedented extra roster spot which lays a crack-filled foundation down for future All-Star games. But Joe Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks got injured and could not play in the game leaving the decision to Stern on who to add to the Eastern Conference roster.

No need for any drumrolls or special effects with this decision because Stern picked Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics. Seriously David? How many more fans are going to watch the All-Star game because Rondo is in it? Now think about the global realm of millions that would have tuned into the game if you had selected Jeremy Lin instead. Fiscally, it just makes no sense.

Underdog stories have forever warmed the hearts of the American culture and that’s what makes Jeremy Lin’s story so attractive. He was told in high school he wasn’t good enough to play at the college level. After college, two NBA teams cut him from their roster. His job security was so porous that he didn’t even rent an apartment in NY choosing rather to sleep on teammates and family member’s couches.

Yet, with all this adversity cemented in Lin’s way he has persevered through it all to produce an impact that can be felt around the globe. He has turned himself into an emanating star that no longer walks the street in obscurity but is rather the focus of a whole segmentation of the mass media. All-Star weekend is an event created to let the stars shine, so why not let the brightest star of them all illuminate the basketball globe.