Let's talk sports, one of my favorites things to do. The subject at hand is the NBA All-Star weekend.
Once one of the jewels of the sport, this antiquated popularity contest has become the laughingstock of professional sports. While baseball's all-star game has similarities in terms of some starters being voted in based on mass blasts from their fans, the NBA's circus of a weekend makes it even more laughable. At least I can fathom having Marcus Giles voted in for baseball if he's having a halfway decent year as opposed to some of the stupidity that has followed the NBA voting scheme.
First of all, let's look at the starters for the teams. On the West, you have Kobe, T-Mac, KG, Tim Duncan, and Yao Ming. Ok, the West looks pretty good...except for the glaring error in having Ming as a starter. Ming has played a grand total of 27 games this year, which means he barely made it past turkey time, and yet was voted in as an all-star. HELLO!!! How does a person sit there and fill out a ballot knowing full well whom they are voting for won't even be able to step foot on the court? They might as well have wrote in 2 million votes for Pete Maravich--it would make as much sense.
On the East, we have D-Wade, Gilbert Arenas, King James, Chris Bosh, and Shaq. I will give the East voters some favor here because voting in Bosh was great--recognizing a player for their attributes and contributions for that year is the way to do it, and Bosh is having a bang-up year. But Shaq? Come on!!! That's even worse than Yao--even though Diesel has rings to back it up, he's so out of his prime and league, per se, that this is one of the largest travesties of all. The fact that it almost seems by his actions that having to play basketball is a nuisance to him makes it even more sickening.
Within all of the voting, here are some of the thing I have observed: Caron Butler was 9th in the forward voting, even though his numbers are far superior to several names in front of him. In the East guards, Michael Redd got more votes than Ben Gordon yet again, has been hurt for a long period of time. For centers, Eddy Curry got a whopping 200,000 playing for a large market team like the Knicks, yet is having a career year. I know, I know, that's like being cocky for losing 20 lbs when your 200 lbs. overweight, but you see my point.
The Western conference voting is a little harder to figure out because of the huge amount of talent--but how in the world does Carlos Boozer rank 10th in forwards, following such basketball powerhouses as Shane Battier and Lamar Odom (again hurt much of the year). The guards look solid, although I still don't understand how in the world Deron Williams got snubbed from this team and Tony Longoria, er, Parker, got in. Give me a freakin' break.
So, what's the story, morning glory? First of all, I believe there should be a rule that if a player misses at least 1/3 of the season, that they are not eligible even to be voted for. Once they hit that magic number--*poof*-their votes are nullified. And even one more thing--if you vote for a player who is hurt or is not in the top 10 statistically for the position, you automatically lose all of your voting capabilities and have your name and face blasted across NBA.com just as we do for sex offenders--ok, maybe that's a bit much. I've gotta lay off the caffiene for a while.
Ok, much better now. Let's be honest here--having fans vote for this is not working out...I mean, come on, is the national championship for football decided by the fans? Nope. It's by the media and coaches. And even when it comes to NCAA Basketball, the polls mean little when a gang of men sit around for three days and decide where the seeds are for March Madness.
It just doesn't make sense that so much is made of this when it's about as logical as snow skiing in Illinois.
So, enough of venting about the ineptness of the voting process. Let's move to the surrounding games and media frenzy this all involves.
It used to be back in the day (which by the way was a Wednesday..thanks Dane), that there were two key events around the all-star game, the 3-pt. contest and the dunk contest. Not only do those still exist, but now we have a Rookie game, a Celebrity game, a skills challenge, shooting stars challenge, and a D-League game. I'm just waiting for next year for their to be a week-long scavenger hunt sponsored by CBS' Survivor and a reality game that allows for someone to win a starting spot on one of the teams. It could happen, and I don't think that my sarcasm is really something to laugh at considering how many stupid things now accompany this once-great game. It's just a matter of time before the All-Star game is owned by Barnum and Bailey.
I miss Bird-Magic. I miss Jordan and Isiah playing together. I miss seeing Spud Webb defy all odds to win a prestigious contest. I want to see Kareem playing his heart out against Moses Malone.
Scary thing is that I may end up seeing that again someday. All they have to do is put their name on the ballot.
Until next time....
Goosey
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