Insult And Now Injury

Right or not, the method for picking All-Star Game starters is in stone- it's left up to the voters, who can vote everyday if they want to. I may not agree with how it's done, but it's how it's done and I just roll with it. The game is kind of for the fans anyway.

But the subs? Those are in the hands of the people who should know better- the coaches. Everyone has their opinion about the All-Star snubs, who should be there, who shouldn't. Here's mine:

IT IS CRIMINALLY RIDICULOUS AND OTHERWISE PREPOSTEROUS THAT DERON WILLIAMS HAS BEEN LEFT OUT AGAIN.


(Calming down.)

Phew. OK. Let's talk.

I'm not gonna play the Smalltown Inferiority Complex card. And I'm not digging into the moldy, overdone CP3 v DWill argument. CP3 got voted a starter-fair and square- and is a dominant player. I'll let time show us how their comparison shakes out.

It's CP3's teammate- admittedly the easiest target on the West roster- that's chapping the nethers here. There's no way that David West, this year or any year, is more valuable to his team or any team than Deron Williams is to the Jazz or would be to any other team.

Take the test: you're building a team around a star. Do you take David West or Deron Williams? If you said "West," either you need to take off the beer goggles or I sincerely hope that your home was OK after Katrina. Come on. COME ON. COME. ON. He's a better leader, a more proven playoff warrior, and has the killer instinct. He was SECOND TEAM ALL-NBA LAST YEAR. That means he was one of the 10 best players in the league and one of the 4 best guards. Yes, that was last season. This season he's averaging 17.6 points, 2.70 boards, 10.1 assists, and 1.1 steals per game compared to last seasons 18.8 points, 10.5 assists, 3 boards, and 1.1 steals per game. Those numbers are down, but so incrementally as to not even matter. He's been the rock in the Jazz's injury-riddled season where even the healthy players (Okur, Korver, Brewer) have seen serious inconsistency plague them consistently.

West? Well, he shares a last name with the conference. I guess they thought they needed a forward. I won't go so far as to call him AC Green, but come on. Come. On.

Now the rest of the guys have arguments in their favor. Brandon Roy's Blazers lead the division and deserve a representative. The Lakers have dominated and should have two players. Dirk has been good, I guess. Chauncey Billups automatically improved the Thuggets, but how hard is that to do when the primary cancer is traded? Shaq deserves it. Tony Parker too, though it's hard to definitively say he's a better PG than D-Will (except when he carves up the Jazz).



The bummer is: now that he's injured, D-Will probably won't even get a chance to be an injury replacement. Maybe it's for the best.