My Ballot, Part Two

Yesterday I discussed whom the fans selected for the Western Conference All-Star team and whom I would have voted for if NBA.com didn’t require registration to vote. Today I’ll focus on the opposing team.

Dwyane Wade and Jason Kidd were selected to fill the guard positions on the Eastern Conference team by the fans. Two years ago I probably would have also voted for both of them. However, this year is an entirely different story. Both the Miami Heat and the New Jersey Nets are out the playoffs right now, although the Nets are only half a game out of eighth place in the east. Sure Wade is putting up great numbers, but his team just snapped a 15 game losing streak. As I mentioned when discussing Yao Ming yesterday, individual performance on bad teams shouldn’t be rewarded.

Kidd on the other hand is basically quitting on his team and demanding a trade (although I admit I wouldn’t mind if he ended up on the Lakers if it didn’t cost them either Lamar Odom or Andrew Bynum). He is also shooting 36% from the field. That doesn’t really say all-star for me. All that being said, he would probably still get my vote because there just aren’t many great guards in the east right now with Gilbert Arenas being hurt. I would vote for Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Pistons, who is averaging 18 points and 7 assists on the second best team in the east, in place of Wade. But neither Ray Allen of the Celtics nor Richard Hamilton of the Pistons make very compelling arguments to replace Kidd. I might have even just left the second guard position empty on my ballot.

At the forward position are two of the best players in the game: LeBron James and Kevin Garnett. As amazing a year as James had last year almost single-handedly leading the Cleveland Cavaliers into the Eastern Conference Finals, James started the year playing even better. He’s averaging nearly 30 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists on a team that’s 24-19 and 4th in the standings. I’ve longed argued that Kobe Bryant was the best player in the league, but every day that passes it gets harder and harder to make that argument with a straight face.

As much as I hated to see Kevin Garnett go to the Boston Celtics and dash all hopes I had of him becoming a Los Angeles Laker, you can’t dispute that Garnett is the best player on the best team (at least record wise) in the NBA. The only reason he wouldn’t be on my ballot would be out of spite. And if I were to vote for another forward, it would probably be for Caron Butler who is doing an amazing job of keeping the Washington Wizards in the playoff hunt without Gilbert Arenas.

Finally, at the center position, the fans chose Dwight Howard. Once again, I can’t disagree with the fans on this one. Howard is a beast in the middle and this year he has the help around him to lead his team to compete with Boston and Detroit. When you look at the alternatives at the center position in the east (Shaquille O’Neal, Rasheed Wallace), the decision really is a no-brainer.

So all in all the fans did a good job of selecting the all-star starters. Thankfully, the coaches can correct the couple of oversights that took place and I’m sure we’ll see Paul, Nowitzki, Stoudamire, and Billups when the all-star reserves are announced on Thursday. However, I’m sure the coaches will also make some screw ups and I’ll be back soon to correct them.

My Ballot

With Super Tuesday and the California primary only a little over a week away, it seems like a perfect time to discuss politics. But I’d rather discuss a different ballot, my ballot for the 2008 NBA All-Star game. (Although for the record, I'll probably vote for Clinton and "No" on all the propositions.)

I had intended to submit my vote, but when I logged onto NBA.com, I discovered that the league was requiring fans to register to vote rather than simply inputting a confirmation code to prevent overzealous fans from voting more than once a day or setting up computer programs to vote multiple times. I didn’t feel like supplying my e-mail address to yet another web-site and getting more spam or just going through the registration process so I declined to vote and instead I plan to go over who the fans chose and mention who I would have voted for.

At the guard position on the Western Conference team, the fans selected Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant. There’s no doubt that Bryant would have been on my ballot. He’s simply one of the best players in the league on a team that only a week or so ago was on top of the Western Conference standings. While a recent turn of events have shown how valuable Andrew Bynum is to the Los Angeles Lakers, there is little doubt that the team would also be struggling if Bynum were healthy and Bryant was out.

As for Iverson, he probably would have been left off my ballot. There is little doubt that he deserves to be a starter. Iverson has been a fan favorite for many years and is currently averaging 27 points, nearly 7 assists, and more than 2 steals on a team that is battling for the lead in the Northwest division. But my vote would have gone to either Chris Paul or Steve Nash considering that both of these players are leading the New Orleans and the Phoenix Suns respectively into a battle for the best record in the conference. Given that Chris Paul has led my fantasy basketball team into first place in my fantasy league, my vote would have gone to Paul.

Iverson is joined on the All-Star team by his Denver Nuggets teammate Carmelo Anthony at one of the forward positions. Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs occupies the other forward position. Like the Answer, Anthony also deserves to be named a starter after averaging 25 points and 7 rebounds for the season. However, once again a Nugget would not have been on my ballot. My pick would have been Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, or Josh Howard. Of the three, Dirk would have gotten the nod because even though he struggled earlier in the year, he is still putting up 22 points and 8 rebounds and is leading the Mavericks to a record of 30-13. As for Duncan, it’s hard to argue with the selection of a player who has consistently led the reigning NBA champions.

That leaves us with the center position. This year the fans chose Yao Ming to represent the Western Conference. Yao is averaging 22 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks and normally that would be enough for me to vote for him to be the starting center for the west. But this year, Yao is getting those stats on team that is only 24-20 and is out of the playoffs as I type. Individual accomplishments on bad teams generally should not be recognized. So my vote would go to Amare Stoudamire who is averaging a rebound less on a team that is near the top of the conference standings. Amare barely edges out Marcus Camby who is having a tremendous year for the Denver Nuggets with 14 rebounds and almost 4 blocks a game.

Tune in tomorrow for my Eastern Conference picks.

Letting Go

One of the saddest things in the world of professional sports is when an aging athlete refuses to acknowledge the ravages of time and retire from the sport that made him so famous and wealthy. We saw it with Jerry Rice, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Evander Holyfield, Roger Clemens, and on and on. Sure there are exceptions. I thought Brett Favre should have retired a couple of seasons ago but apparently he had at least one great season, if not playoff run, left in him. But usually athletes end up playing longer than they should.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Shaquille O'Neal could miss as much as a month with acute inflammation of the left hip and quadriceps. The news wasn’t much of a surprise. Shaq has already missed eight games this season due to injury. However the news was a reminder that it really is time for Shaq to retire.

Shaq really has nothing left to prove. He’s been the most dominant force in the game and has four championships. While the Lakers might be in a better position than the Heat this year, Miami has one championship since the trade that sent Shaq to Florida while Kobe Bryant and the Lakers are still waiting for another trophy.

The Diesel is still putting up decent numbers with 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks on 58% shooting, but there are too many games in which he shows that he is almost 36 years old and is in his 16th season in the NBA. Games like the last game he played when he got 10 points and 5 rebounds in 28 minutes or like his game against Washington on December 13 when he ended up with only 7 points and 6 rebounds.

But after reading this quote from a conversation with ESPN Radio’s Jack Ramsey, it appears that Shaq has ruled out any notion of retirement: “I am the son of an army drill sergeant, and when we enlist, we go full term. So I've got two years left on my term, and after that, I'll be looking to do other things.” Of course the fact that he is due $40 million over the next two seasons is also providing motivation for him to go full term. I can’t really blame him. Even thought he’s made millions already, it would be insane to walk away from that much money. But I’m hoping that if the Heat offer any kind of buy out of his contract, Shaq takes it and stops tarnishing the image he once had as the most feared force in the league.

Damn Giants

I’ve been ignoring the NFL for most of the season. After 12 years without a professional football team in Los Angeles, I’ve just had it. It didn’t help that my fantasy football season was a complete disaster after drafting Steve Smith, Shaun Alexander, and Vince Young. While I did miss the game a little, I found other ways to occupy my time.

Of course it was impossible to completely ignore the NFL. Although I failed to watch a single game from start to finish, I did know about the New England Patriots’ pursuit of a perfect season and the resurgence of Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. I was intrigued by the story lines because I hate the Patriots and have been a longtime fan of Brett Favre. I also embraced the controversy surrounding the Patriots for their cheating and bad sportsmanship and the portrayal of Favre as an old, revitalized gunslinger on what might be his last journey.

So as the playoffs neared I couldn’t help but think about the possibility of a match-up between both of these memorable teams. There were only two potential obstacles, the Indianapolis Colts and the Dallas Cowboys. The Colts had the second best record in the AFC behind the Patriots and the Cowboys had home field advantage over the Packers after beating them during the regular season. Then a funny thing happened. The Colts lost to the injury depleted San Diego Chargers and the Cowboys lost at home to the New York Giants.

Now I started to get excited. There was no way the Chargers were going to beat the Patriots. Also, the Packers were looking strong after thumping the Seattle Seahawks 42-20 and I figured they wouldn’t have any problem with the Giants at home in sub-freezing Green Bay. The battle between Good and Evil was going to take place and I had a feeling Good might be able to pull off the upset. Since the Patriots were the favorites against any NFC team, even the Patriots fans were excited at the idea of exacting a little vengeance for the Pats' loss to the Packers in Super Bowl XXXI back in 1997.

Unfortunately, Eli Manning and the New York Giants didn’t get the script. They had their own story to tell about a much-maligned quarterback coming through when it counts. A story about a team who lost its star running back, Tiki Barber, who had disparaged that same quarterback and the team’s coach, and made it to the Super Bowl without him.

To be honest, that’s not that bad of a story. But I haven’t liked Manning since he refused to play for the Chargers after they drafted him and I really don’t care about Barber. So once again the NFL has let me down. After truly looking forward to the Packers/Patriots match-up, all I have is another battle between New York and Boston, as if the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry wasn’t sickening enough. Oh well, at least I’ll have the Super Bowl commercials to look forward to.

To Boo or Not To Boo

Hello again. I’ve been away for a little over a year taking care of other business. But I’m back just in time to discuss the Lakers’ decline. At least I didn’t start writing again before Andrew Bynum, the Lakers’ promising young center, hurt his knee. If that were the case, I probably would have blamed myself for jinxing the team.

Anyway, tonight the Lakers play the Denver Nuggets and one of the key questions for me, aside from whether the Lakers have learned to play without Bynum or how much Trevor Ariza’s absence will hurt the team, is how the crowd will respond to Bynum’s replacement by Kwame Brown.

Last time the Lakers played, last Thursday night against the Phoenix Suns, the home crowd roundly booed Brown. Even though I think the trade for Brown in 2005 was a travesty for the Lakers and I have completely given up hope on the idea of him helping the Lakers, I did not join in the boos. I despise Kwame Brown. I’ve literally screamed out the words “I hate you Kwame Brown” while watching him miss a slam-dunk against the Memphis Grizzlies. I live for July 1st when Brown will become a free agent and leave the Lakers. But I don’t think I could ever bring myself to boo Brown, or any other individual Laker, during a Lakers game.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against booing. I routinely engage in booing when I attend Laker games. Usually my jeers are directed at referees and horrendous officiating, but every once in a while the Lakers become my target. The boos come out when the Lakers are dogging it: when they don’t play defense, forget to rebound, take too many threes, or generally don’t hustle. Most memorably for me was game two of the 2004 NBA Finals. After the Lakers lost game one of the series I expected to see them put forth a tremendous effort in game two. When it didn't happen, my frustrations boiled over and the boos came forth. I was so annoyed that I couldn’t even enjoy Kobe Bryant’s three-pointer that tied the game or the overtime that was dominated by the Lakers.

Some might see my stance as a bit illogical and neither type of booing as supportive. I don’t dispute that I can be irrational, but let me explain why I see a difference between booing your team’s player and booing your team. When I boo the Lakers, I’m not booing them because I don’t love the Lakers or want them to stop playing. I’m booing them because I’m trying to motivate them to play better after my cheering has failed. On the other hand booing just one player is like an attack. When I saw people booing Brown, I saw animosity. Sure some people might be hoping for him to pick up his game, but generally they are hoping that he gets taken out of the game and replaced with another player. There is no support in that.

So tonight when Brown blows another lay up or fumbles another rebound or pass, you might hear me curse Brown and call him the worst player ever, but you won’t hear me booing him. And who knows, if the Lakers are able to get a victory, you might even hear me cheering him.