I’m diggin’ that article. How soon they forget, right? F*** that…..Wade is my guy.

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Will check out the McNabb piece once I put my girls to bed. I don’t think it could get much better than it already is. (lol) Looking forward to the addendum nonetheless.

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You know what? I actually forgot about the Canadian factor. Yup, VC pulled off the impossible.

Put that in your “Way Back Machine” and smoke (Media and LeBron v. Wade)

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I hear you on the other stuff. BTW — I updated that McNabb piece a few times after you read it.

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Surprised you didn’t mention the Canada Factor for Bosh. Isn’t VC the only one to clear that hurdle?

I’m not suggesting that Garnett shouldn’t be a starter. What I agree with Webber on is that a superstar on an inferior team shouldn’t be overlooked just because he’s on an inferior team. In the grand scheme of things, the fans’ vote comes down to a popularity contest. I have no problem with that because it’s a game for the fans. But that’s where the confusion comes into to play. If it’s a game for the fans and not the “All-Pro” NBA All-Star game, then the fans’ logic in voting shouldn’t be questioned.

If a player’s value is among the factors that a fan weighs in choosing that player for the team, I don’t have a problem with that. But how realistic is that when we have millions of young fans punching ballots who perhaps don’t understand that aspect of the game? And at the same time a player’s performance is what put fans in the seats every night and more often than not, I think it is the main reason why that player is selected. Kevin Garnett probably does deserve to start. But what Garnett has going for him is he’s a veteran, he’s an established superstar and he’s playing in a player friendly market (Boston). Chris Bosh, on the other hand, doesn’t have all those luxuries, so therefore he won’t get the recognition that a Garnett would.

I won’t say that if you put Bosh in Boston, they’ll be 36-9 but I do think they’d be close. But if you put Garnett in Toronto, are they better than 16-28? I’m not sure, especially with the outcome of Garnett’s last season in Minny(32-50).

I think that if a superstar on a inferior team is putting up the numbers AND working hard to keep his team in games, then he has just as much value as a player such as Garnett who now has a different role on a team full of stars. Where would that inferior team be without him? I think Webber has a pretty good point.

I think Kenny Smith is perhaps the best NBA analyst on TV and I probably didn’t use the correct word to describe some of his opinions (asinine). But he does sometimes allow his ego to guide him into linear perspectives quite a bit.

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I also agree with your assessment regarding Wade v. Kobe. It’s all circumstantial until the playing field is even. But what gets me is that some people, including media pundits, act as if Wade’s NBA title and MVP performance doesn’t mean a thing.

I think the philosophy of selecting All-Stars is always worthy of debate.

A couple of things:

When the game is played matters. In football, the award is for who has had the best season through Week 14 or 15. So the votes are going to look different. If football voting was closed in Week 9, Ed Reed doesn’t go to the Pro Bowl because he didn’t have more than 1 pick until Week 12. That he went to grab 6 more and lead the league would have been irrelevant. So when would Ed Reed be honored if the NFL voted as they do in baseball and basketball? At next year’s Pro Bowl?

In baseball and basketball, the mid-season game means two things: that the voting fans will consider not merely the first half of the season, but the last half of the prior season (especially the post-season) and the careers of the player. Fans in baseball and basketball are NOT purely voting for who is having the best half of a season. If they were, it would make All-Star voting among the most stupid activities we engage in. The All-Star vote, then, is larger than the 1st half.

It’s 2 parts first half, 2 parts last year, 2 parts beauty contest, 2 parts media hype, 2 parts career achievement. It’s all of these things and that’s why it is so nuanced. When you factor in all these pieces, Bosh has Garnett by only 1 measure (the first half of 2008-2009), and even here, Garnett’s value to the C’s (Kenny’s point) is at least as valuable and impressive as Bosh’s performance (Chris’ and Gary’s point). So, the decision of the fans seems to be very logical — if not correct.
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re: Kenny’s point about Team Success vs. Individual Performance

The same principle can be applied to Hall of Fame selections. From a statistical standpoint, we all know that elite players on sub par teams have opportunities to put up huge numbers (regardless of the sport) because other players simply are not on their level. Similarly, we know that elite players on elite teams tend to sublimate aspects of their game in order to achieve a larger purpose.

As such, the STATISTICS of the player on a sub-par team are not necessarily the best measure of their performance. To me, it doesn’t qualify or disqualify a player — but it means you could have a team of All-Stars full of STAT MACHINES on crappy teams. I don’t believe that’s the concept behind an All-Star game. I don’t believe that would be much of an All-Star game. Neither would it constitute much of a Hall of Fame. You’d have guys with numbers (principally achieved during regular season games) who have largely (though not always) failed to get over the hump while facing the fire of post-season competition.

That’s not fair. I know its not fair. However, those are the politics of the game.

(Side note: I’ve always held that the reason the Knicks couldn’t win with Ewing was because he never made a public demands for better teammates. Jordan did it. Olajuwon did it. They had to. Ewing was never paired with another elite scorer in his prime. He played with an old Rolando Blackman and an aging Derek Harper. He played with a recovering Bernard King — and that was it. Still, his teams won games, but not the biggest.)

Kenny Smith won championships and played with elite players who sublimated their games every night for the larger good. Webber never won a ring and I think that shapes his perspective as much as Kenny’s experience. Payton didn’t win one until he was granted some charitable love from Riley and had a roster spot in Miami. I think that’s a factor for him as well.

Wade on the differences between the 2006 Championship team and his current team: “The difference between teams, if you look at a team like Boston, they have veteran guys and they know what they are doing. With our team in 2006 we had a lot of veteran guys and we didn’t have to go over too much, coach gave us a game plan and we executed. With this young team it’s not that easy, we have to continue to tell guys what to do even within the game, and make sure guys are professional enough to bring it every night. I’m trying to lead as much as I can, of course my shot attempts are up but I have to for this young team to make sure that every night we are out there to compete. We’ve been doing a good job so far, and we’ve got 41 games more to go. Hopefully we can be better in these 41 and make a playoff push.”

This is exactly why I can’t get too excited about Kobe defending D-Wade in a regular season game. It’s all context. Do that when Wade has 4 guys to pass the rock to, and has essentially the same duties as you do — then we can talk. We’re not going to see that matchup until the All-Star game. We’ll see if either of them is willing to expend that level of effort defensively in order to prove a point.

Smith: “You are comparing (Garnett) to himself and not to other forwards. As a team, if you take KG off the Boston Celtics and you put Chris Bosh on the Boston Celtics they are not 35-9.”

That’s why Kenny Smith is the best NBA analyst on the tube.

I like the way that Webber emphatically disagreed with him on the philosophy of selecting All-Stars. He made a very good point. I also like how Payton disagreed with some of the things Kenny spoke of as well.

Mizz,

You think that you can find that half-time session on youtube?