There are no surprises. There never are because there aren’t allowed to be when it comes to the fan balloting for an All-Star game.
So when the 2008 starters were announced Thursday for the 57th Annual NBA All-Star game to be played in New Orleans on Feb. 17, there was no reason to get excited. They all deserve to be there … with the big question coming next Thursday when the other guys who deserved to start get voted on to complete the squad.
Which is then followed by the furor over who gets left out.
Celtics forward Kevin Garnett earned the sixth most votes in history and paced everyone this season for his 11th consecutive trip to the All-Star game. He’ll be joined up front by super-youngsters LeBron James of the Cavs and upstart Orlando’s Dwight Howard. There are no arguments there, if only because they are the three best frontcourt players in the East.
And really, there’s not much to argue in the backcourt, either. Dwyane Wade – coming off surgery on both his shoulder and knee – has been his spectacular self, despite having no help at all on the horrifyingly bad Heat. And then there is the always confusing Jason Kidd, he of the passive aggressive personality and the perfect skinny triple-doubles. Chauncey Billups would be a better pick, but he’s a lock to get added on next week anyway.
The West starters aren’t any more controversial, although next week figures to be even more difficult. The Rockets Yao Ming was a lock to be the top vote-getter at center, with the irrepressible Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant and Nuggets ubiquitous guard Allen Iverson the starters in the backcourt. Iverson came from behind to knock out Yao’s teammate Tracy McGrady, which is a good thing considering Iverson is a much better choice.
Next to Yao up front are the Spurs “Big Fundamental” Tim Duncan and Iverson’s Nuggets teammate Carmelo Anthony, considered by many to now be the best low-post scorer in the game today.
There are no arguments here to be made. This is the “fan’s game,” after all, and hopefully it will create some positive vibes for the struggles not even close to being resolved in New Orleans and the aftermath of Katrina.
But the questions remain about next week, and what the coaches are going to do about filling out the roster. They can not vote for players on their own team, plus they must pick five players by position and two alternates from their conference to fill out the 12-man roster. If there are injuries, it will be up to commissioner David Stern to supply the replacement.
Perhaps the biggest question – both literally and figuratively – is what to do about injury-ridden Heat center Shaquille O’Neal. Does he deserve a 15th consecutive trip to the All-Star game just out of respect for what he has accomplished in his career and for the league? If it’s a fan’s game, yes. But in many ways, out of respect for how Shaq has become just a giant shadow of himself on the court and no longer an All-Star caliber player, let’s leave well enough alone.
That being said, let’s fill out the rest of the East squad: Raptors forward ChrisBosh, Wizards forward Caron Butler, Hawks guard Joe Johnson, Pistons guard Chauncey Billups andCavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas as the second five - with Celtics forward Paul Pierce and Pistons forward/center Rasheed Wallace as the two wild cards.
The West will be even more difficult to cut down, once you get past the second group of Suns center Amare Stoudemire and his teammate Steve Nash and New Orleans’ Chris Paul at the guards, with Utah’s Carlos Boozer and Dallas’ DirkNowitzki at the forwards.
That leaves us with just two spots to include Golden State’s Baron Davis, Phoenix’s Shaun Marion, Portland’s superb second-year guard Brandon Roy, along with the Hornets David West and Tyson Chandler, and that’s not to mention the Spurs Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili, and perhaps the best defensive player in the league, Marcus Camby at Denver.
Just for spark, I’ll go with Brandon Roy, for what he has done to life the Blazers from near oblivion and Tyson Chandler for how he has built himself into an All-Star caliber player at 23 after being beaten down to a nearly permanent fetal position in Chicago for five years.
And if you don’t like it, it doesn’t matter. This is what the All-Star game is all about. It’s filled with political, personal and popular decisions. Logic and statistics are merely props to justify whatever you want them to do. Every player mentioned here has the talent, style and statistics to be an All-Star. That’s why there has been a push going on the last few years to expand the All-Star rosters to 15 to avoid exclusion.
But it’s not likely to happen for now. The super weekend that’s expected to uplift the Big Easy is all about parties for sponsors and throwing money around in a city that is in such dire need, and hope against hope that it can add some juice to the Hornets franchise that is suffering the conundrum of being superb on the court but nobody comes to see the games.
So that’s why we’re making this point about picking whoever we want to be on the roster. When all is said and done about the weekend, it still comes down to the same thing for the players.
This is all about the game, and they all want to be there, if only because it’s the one time they call get to hang out together without the pressure of the regular season. And that’s the best part about it.
Once again the Denver Nuggets came crashing down out of first place in the Northwest Division, this time with the weight of the sprained left ankle of Carmelo Anthony.
You have to wonder when this will end for the Nuggets. That’s not to say Anthony’s loss is expected to be very long. It certainly looked bad when he landed on Kobe Bryant’s right foot and rolled the ankle after sinking a jumper from the wing. And the hope is he could be back by the weekend, but it’s more about the cumulative effect of what keeps happening to the Nuggets than the 17-point loss Monday night or the rolled ankle that ended Anthony's night in the second quarter.
They just haven’t gained any momentum because coach George Karl just hasn’t been able to keep players healthy.
It would be an exaggeration for him to cry poor, that’s for sure. Anthony is the fourth-leading scorer in the NBA and hasn’t missed a game until he very likely sits out Wednesday’s home game with the Hawks. Allen Iverson is the third-leading scorer in the league at 27.2, with 6.9 assists and 2.1 steals playing in all 40 games so far, while Marcus Camby leads the league in blocks at 3.92 and is second in rebounding at 14.3 in 39 games.
They’ve even gotten stellar play off the bench from explosive scoring Linas Kleiza and rugged Eduardo Najera. But even Najera sat out Monday’s loss with elbows the size of cantaloupes (well, small ones), and Kleiza has missed some games.
More reflective of the situation is it was the first game back for the embattled Kenyon Martin, after sitting three games with a staph infection of the, uh, derriere. That hit K-Mart while he’s trying to keep from injuring any part of his legs coming off microfracture surgery on both knees over the past couple of seasons. Nonetheless, he has managed to average 9.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.43 blocks in 26.5 minutes in 30 of the 40 games after playing just 58 of 164 the previous two years.
Of course, Martin’s story pales in comparison to the adventures of Nene, their even more injurious big man. He tore a ligament in his thumb the first week of the season, came back just after Christmas, and sat down soon thereafter to have surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his testicle. He’s played in 12 games, and that’s after playing 120 games out of a possible 246 the past three seasons.
And that’s before we even get into the plight of the point guards they brought in this season to relieve Iverson of ballhandling duties – Chucky Atkins and Anthony Carter. Atkins was their free-agent signing and the expected starter, but suffered a strained groin in training camp. He sat until December, then played in all of nine games before it worsened into a sports hernia (including the groin and abdominal muscle) that required surgery. He isn’t expected back until at least March. Carter has played in 25 games, but first had to overcome a broken hand from training camp.
So what is this about … being a Mile High? Has the karmic flow changed through the Rockies, affecting the ecosystem and the water?
There doesn’t have to be a reason, only a result. And that’s where Karl comes in as a veteran coach. The Nuggets should still win the Northwest Division, if only because the disappointing Jazz just don’t seem to have it this year, and the first-place Trail Blazers are awfully young to maintain this pace all season.
But even more to the point, Monday’s loss gave Karl a lot of perspective. It was the first regular-season game in which he coached against his son Coby, a second-round draft choice of the Lakers, who has spent the bulk of the season in the Developmental League. Within the past two years, both Karl and Coby have had successful cancer surgery. It's brought them much closer together and by the end of the night, they were just happy to be on the same floor.
That would be the best reason of all for George Karl to be confident the karma will come back around for the Nuggets by the spring.His stolen moments with his son gave him plenty of positive feedback during a game that otherwise would have really hurt.
They just haven’t gained any momentum because coach George Karl just hasn’t been able to keep players healthy.
