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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Richmond: Nba’s Unappreciated Star His Scoring Average Ranks In Top 10, But His All-Star Vote Total Doesn’t

David Kligman Associated Press

Sacramento’s Mitch Richmond could be the NBA’s best shooting guard nobody knows about.

Teammates say if Richmond played in New York, he’d be compared to Michael Jordan and would be a lock to start in the Feb. 12 AllStar game.

But the 1989 rookie of the year plays in Sacramento, a city traditionally known more for politics than basketball.

So even though Richmond is one of the league’s top scorers and has led the Kings into playoff contention for the first time in years, his only chance to play in the All-Star game will be if coaches select him as a reserve.

The voters’ snub hasn’t rankled Richmond, just everyone around him.

“I don’t understand it, especially for a guy who’s having his best year,” said Jerry Reynolds, Sacramento’s player personnel director. “I don’t know what the fans are thinking. Obviously, they’re not.”

Richmond’s average of 22.8 points a game was eighth best in the NBA as of Wednesday. That was higher than Grant Hill, Anfernee Hardaway, Reggie Miller and Scottie Pippen - all contenders for starting spots in the AllStar game to be played in Phoenix.

Richmond isn’t even among the top 10 leading vote-getters among Western Conference guards.

For his part, Richmond says he wouldn’t mind a reserve spot on the All-Star team, largely because the Kings are winning. The Kings are in the middle of the Pacific Division pack and looking to make the playoffs for the first time since 1985-1986, their first season in Sacramento after moving from Kansas City.

“I think the more we win, the more the notoriety will come around - for everyone,” said Richmond, who started in last year’s AllStar game. “I guess this year I’m just appreciating the wins more because last year they were so hard to come by.”

Still, Richmond doesn’t understand why more fans haven’t voted for him.

“I’m having about the same kind of season I had last year when I was a starter,” he said.

One theory for Richmond’s inability to make the top 10 in the voting is that for the first time, ballots were distributed at 1,500 Foot Locker stores throughout the United States. Balloting also was done at the athletic shoe chain’s international stores in Mexico, Canada and Australia.

In the past, ballots were distributed only at NBA arenas.

Richmond said foreign fans favor superstars whose teams played abroad in exhibition games, such as Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley. The new voters have resulted in 1.6 million more votes than last season, said the NBA’s John Maroon, who defended the process.

“You’d be surprised at how recognizable many of the star players are in the other countries,” Maroon said. “Sure, some of the best guys don’t receive enough votes, but those guys get remaining spots by coaches.”

Sacramento’s Olden Polynice sees little consolation in that and says fans should leave voting to players.

“It’s a popularity thing,” Polynice said. “They’ll give it to you because they figure, ‘We owe this guy. We owe that guy.’ What they should be asking is, ‘What are they doing right now?”’

Richmond, in his fourth year with the Kings after being traded by Golden State, scored his 10,000th point in his 441st NBA game this season. Only David Robinson, Dominique Wilkins, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon made it faster.

“I can’t think of another two-guard I’d rather have on my team than Mitch,” teammate Spud Webb says. “He’s big and wide, he can post, he can shoot, he gets back on defense. I don’t see a flaw in his game.”

And if he were playing in New York?

“You’d be saying his name like you would Jordan,” Webb said. “He has that kind of game. They’d know what we know.”