The NBA needs to fix this – Now
If the NBA is going to screw with the All-Star game by not only have players drafted rather than placed based on Conference, but now with the game’s scoring rules no longer looking at all like a traditional basketball game (to bone up on the new rules, check this out), then why are the rosters still populated with players exclusively from the two Conferences?
It is not only logical, but it also has screwed Devin Booker not just once, but twice in the last two seasons.
Phoenix Suns
Fortunately, I do not think that Booker would place any blame on the Phoenix Suns as a team or organization (well, he could rightly blame Robert Sarver for allowing the franchise to be as bad as it ha been throughout Book’s earliest prime years thus far – and since team record often plays into a player’s selection in an All-Star Game, that has definitely hurt him as well), and therefore will not hold it against the franchise by pulling a Joe Johnson and demanding out just so he can be an All-Star somewhere else where it is easier to get in.
Book should make this personal and take it out against every team in the league (not just the Western Conference), and like Bradley Beal with Washington, do everything he possibly can to drag the Phoenix Suns into the playoffs – which alone would be a much bigger accomplishment than making the All-Star Game.
However, to prevent Devin Booker from even being screwed again – as well as any other player in the league that is equally as deserving of the honor – if the league is going to keep the silly draft, then they need to rid themselves of the Conference-based selection process and allow fans (and the coaches) to decide upon the best players at that time, regardless of Conference location.
This is what is best for the league; what is best for the Phoenix Suns; and what is best for Devin Booker.