TNT announces the starters for the NBA all-star game tomorrow night. The results are usually predictable. Line up the players by shoe contract amount take the first two guards, forwards and one center from each conference and you’ve got your five for each side. A favorite pastime of both knowledgeable pundits and pointless homer fans like myself is declaring what the starting five for each side should be. I shall not let this duty slide.

Eastern Conference

Guards: Gilbert Arenas and Jason Kidd

Arenas is this year’s Kobe, shooting bad shot after bad shot but making them in what’s bound to be a futile effort. Damn is it fun to watch. Kidd passed Wilt Chamberlain on the all-time triple-double list this year. That’s got to be worth something.

I pass on Dwyane Wade because from the games I’ve seen, all he can do is get to the stripe. Corey Maggette would be an all-star if that was important. I’d like to see him play a game where the refs treated him like the rest of the players and didn’t give him everything that even looks sort of like a little bit of a foul.

Forwards: LeBron James and Emeka Okafor

He’s no Jordan, and honestly I don’t think he’s even Kobe. Still, LeBron is a force of nature. He’s as fast as a 2 and as big as a 4, he can shoot, he can post up, and he’s watched a lot of tape of people playing defense. Okafor is, I think, the single most overlooked player in the east. 11 boards anf three blocks a night? That’s crazy talk. Plus his name is Emeka. Seriously.

I’m really put out that Paul Pierce has been hurt all year. Otherwise it would have been kind of fun to start him at the 3 and LeBron at the 4. What would the west have done? (Hint: win anyway.)

Center: Dwight Howard

He’s half Amare and half Shaq. He easily wins the Will Dunk On Anybody award for this year. I think he’ll be the dominant center in the league three years from now.

Western Conference

Guards: Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant

Nash is the two time league MVP, and some horrible crime will have been committed if he’s not the MVP again this year. He’s the best point guard that I’ve ever seen play (Note: I didn’t start watching the NBA until after Magic, so….). It’s a pity that there’s no chance that he’ll be voted in to start. Bryant has been the top talent in the league for years, but he’s played like an ass. This year: not so much. Several of his team mates are having career years, he’s shooting less, and the team is winning more.

Forwards: Kevin Garnette and Carmello Anthony

Garnette pretty well has a lifetime pass for the all-star game. Too bad he doesn’t play on a real team. Despite doing 15 games for brawling, Anthony is one of the best scorers in the league and demonstrated during the world championship that he’s actually interested in competing. Besides, I feel fine admitting one bone head out of ten. Also, maybe he’ll throw a punch at Wade.

(Edit: yes, I forgot to mention Dirk here. Yes, he should start in front of either Garnette or Anthony. Sorry, Cuban.)

Center: Amare Stoudemire

Mehmet Okur and Marcus Camby are probably having better seasons statistically, and Chris Kaman wins on pure oh my god what kind of a freak is he points. I’d really like to spend a game watching Stoudemire and Howard dunk on each other, though. It’d be fun. Plus he plays well with Nash.

Well, there you have it: my totally uninformed list of the all-star game starters. Stay tuned to find out how many I guessed correctly. (Hint: 2)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 9:11 pm and is filed under NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.