Okay - I blame ticktock over at Hornetshype for this one, but there is a conspiracy floating around on the internet today: David Stern fixed the All-Star voting so that Chris Paul would edge out Tracy McGrady.

So - let's look at the numbers.  Let's start with those who were getting big boosts by Chinese fans, and what they received over the last two weeks of voting:

Yao Ming gained 750,000 more votes. Yi Jianlin gained 600,000 more votes, Devin Harris gained 600,000 more votes, Vince Carter gained 500,000 more, Tracy McGrady gained a little short of 500,000 more votes.  Ron Artest gained a little short of 500,000 more.  Scola gained 200,000 more.  Alston gained 200,000 more.  Shane Battier gained 200,000 more.

Looks to me like a half a million more chinese voters popped by and gave boosts to Yao, Yi, Vince, Devin Harris, McGrady and Ron Artest.  The other three guys from Houston got other, smaller boosts in line with what they had gotten before.

Then we have Paul - who gained another 1 million votes.  Guess what though?  LeBron James, Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard also gained 1 million more.  Wade and Kobe gained 950k.  Shaq, of all people, gained 850k.

When you point out that Duncan got more votes over the last two weeks than Paul, is that shocking?  Is it surprising that the same people who rank Dwight, Tim and LeBron at the top of their positions on their ballots would also put Kobe and Paul at the top of theirs? Or that 300,000 Chinese who couldn't stomach the idea of Rafer Alston's name on their ballot would pick Paul (or Kobe) to replace him?

If David Stern wanted Paul to beat McGrady, do you really think he'd have him beat McGrady by 500,000 extra votes?  Really?

C'mon, people!  Believe in Paul and his ability to make people outside of Utah recognize he's the best damn point guard on the planet!