With the rest of the basketball world up in arms about Jerry Sloan (while avoiding the question, "Why does this stuff always happen to officials named Courtney or Scott or Tim, and not guys named Earl or Mendy or Manny?"), Tracy McGrady was trying to fall on a grenade to save the platoon.

	Vince Carter ought to be ashamed to be in the starting lineup of next weekend's NBA All-Star Game.

We'll get back to the officials in a moment. First things first, though.

McGrady, one of the NBA's worthiest All-Stars, volunteered to surrender his place in the Eastern Conference's starting lineup for the less deserving Michael Jordan.

Now, while some people have suggested, and loudly, that the man to step back so Jordan can step forward is his fellow Tar Heel, Vince Carter, we here at "You Can't Make This Stuff Up Theatre" think that misses the point.

We know what the problem is -- the fan voting. The ticket-buyers have shown a disturbing propensity for getting the easy ones tragically wrong by voting out of habit rather than out of responsibility. They often treat their ballots like they all live in Florida, and so sometimes you end up with Vince Carter.

But the fan voting isn't going anywhere. The customer is always right, especially at these prices, and if they think Vince Carter is a good idea, well, somehow they need a more gentle form of persuasion.

What we need, then, is a two-tiered All-Star ballot, sort of like primary and run-off voting. The first time, the fans vote for the All-Star starters. The second time, they get peremptory challenges to kick the undeserving winners out.

It's the natural remedy to MTV's well-intentioned "Rockhead The Vote," only this way the voters get to say "Oops" before the inauguration. And frankly, who can't like that?

There have been enough head-seizing mistakes since the fans were granted the right to become advertising tools in exchange for the right to say, "I think Barry Bonds would be a good choice in left field." But rather than list them, let's all agree that the fans ought to get the illusion of decision-making power and, when one gets away from them, the real power of taking it back.

The NBA vote was interesting enough this time, insofar as neither Jordan nor that other hardy perennial, Shaquille O'Neal, was pushed through by the electors. It seems that, every once in awhile, people will vote not just on reputation but on the less-used "What have you done for me lately?" ticket, and these were two such examples.

But they clearly knew what they wanted when they voted for McGrady, an exemplary player and, it should be noted, a relatively selfless exemplar at that. He got his votes the old-fashioned way -- and as a result, ought to celebrate the All-Star weekend the old-fashioned way, by starting.

	It shouldn't take a sacrifice by Tracy McGrady to correct a balloting error.

Thus, the only remedy here is to count the votes earlier, tabulate the results, and then tell the voters, "OK, you get one more chance to improve your grade before the final. Vote for three folks you want to see fishing while you're watching the game, we'll total 'em up again, and if one player's name is on more than half the ballots ... voom!"

After all, if you believe the fans have earned the right to vote, then surely they've earned the right to voom as well. In addition, this works better than the old-fashioned recall petitions because you don't have to invalidate the entire ballot, just the one or two things that make everyone grab their noses and go screaming into the night for the Air-Wick.

And while we're at it, how about letting the fans vote for the officials as well? There are enough NBA games in the course of an average week in which lifelong fans point to one or two officials and say, "Who the hell is that?"

This is not a good response, as shown by the reaction to the Sloan incident. I mean, had you heard of Courtney Kirkland before Sloan decided in the inexcusable heat of the moment to make him famous?

But we're not here to defend Kirkland or slander Sloan. We have lots of Web space for that.

We do know, though, that in these days when fewer and fewer officials are readily recognizable (is that Mike Callahan or Mark Wunderlich, and why is he trying to impersonate Pat Freher?), the fans deserve familiar faces, attached to officials who have outraged them before.

Joey Crawford, for example. Or Steve Javie. Or Dick Bavetta, who has apparently mastered the art of being on national TV every single night. Jess Kersey, or Danny Crawford, or Bill Spooner, or Bernie Fryer, if he has let his hair grow back.

In other words, we don't want to find out that Tracy McGrady ended up surrendering his spot to Michael Jordan in a game that will be worked by Leroy Richardson, Derek Richardson and Miranda Richardson.

But we can wait on fixing the refs (as opposed to, say, neutering them). The peremptory challenges thing, though, is an idea whose time has clearly come and which should be implemented immediately.

Not to mention sponsored by My Bad, the Wite-Out for the next generation.

Ray Ratto is a columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle and a regular contributor to ESPN.com