Selecting All-Stars in any sport can be very difficult. So many options and so few spots available. The NBA is the worst of all the leagues for selecting their All-Stars. The ballots are never updated and always have injured players available for voting. NBA fans are the worst because they are the most uneducated fans. The game may be expanding and it may be going global but it doesn’t mean that the intellectual fan base will also be going global. The NBA fans have ruined the All-Star game for the last decade and last week I was ready to write an angry blog on yet another disastrous all-star voting result. Except this time the fans got it right! Well almost. About 3 weeks ago I was out to dinner with a few of my friends and we started talking basketball. My buddy Kush and I are the basketball gurus of the group and the All-Star game came up and I told him that I would guess whom the fans would vote for to be this years starters in the All-Star game. We debated for a few minutes before I came up with my final list:
Eastern Conference Starters
C – Dwight Howard
F – LeBron James
F – Carmelo Anthony
G – Dwyane Wade
G – Derrick Rose
Western Conference Starters
C – Andrew Bynum
F – Dirk Nowitzki
F – Kevin Durant
G – Kobe Bryant
G – Chris Paul
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| This is why Carmelo is a starter. At least he's not a Celtics fan. |
The
All-Star starters came out a few days ago and I was picking 90% winners. Now if
only my sports betting stats were that good I’d be on easy street. The only
starter I got wrong was Dirk Nowitzki. Blake Griffin was voted in by the fans
to start and Kush warned me the fans would pick him. I may have got it wrong
but believe me, I wouldn’t have voted for either of them to start. The fans
also earned a 90% score this season. The only player who does not deserve to
start this year is Blake Griffin. Replacing Blake should be Minnesota’s Kevin
Love and that is a no brainer. Griffin was voted in because he is the NBA’s
version of Blake Lively; pure eye candy. Kevin Love plays in a small market
with no high profile players and only this year has he began to build a name
for himself as one of the elite players in the league. He will be an all-star
this year, no question about it, but unfortunately he will not earn himself a
starting spot.
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| How is Love not a starter? Common Fans! |
The
next part is where it gets interesting because now the coaches vote the
reserves in. Some would say that NBA coaches are brilliant when it comes to
basketball and understand the game very well but nobody ever said they were
great judges of talent. There is always an all-star snub, always a guy who made
it based on reputation and that’s unfortunate. A basketball roster carries 12
players. It’s tough for coaches to pick 7 players from each conference when
there are so many great athletes in the NBA today. Here are my choices for the
reserves:
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| Aldridge got snubbed last year. Not this year coaches, not this year! |
Eastern Conference
Rajon Rondo
Deron Williams
Joe Johnson
Chris Bosh
Danny Granger
Andrea Bargnani
Andre Iguodala
Western Conference
Steve Nash
Russell Westbrook
Tony Parker
Kevin Love
LaMarcus Aldridge
Pau Gasol
Kevin Martin
I
had a very difficult time making those cuts, especially with the Western
Conference. I really wanted to include Paul Millsap but because the West has so
many big men, especially in a guard dominated game, I had to go with Kevin
Martin. Dirk Nowitzki was left off of my list but I do believe that he will be on the roster come Thursday night when the reserves are announced. Other
notable snubs include: Danilo Gallinari (Den), Ricky Rubio (Min), DeAndre
Jordan (LAC), Josh Smith (Atl), and Paul Pierce (Bos).
I
hope the NBA gets it right because over the past 8 months they haven’t gotten
much right.
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter folks @Jelturk09. Make it happen!
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