Upon the NBA's All-Star Game

I missed a good bit of the All-Star Weekend while in Vegas, but I did catch some of the game itself. Josh Smith took the dunk contest with a salute to Mr. Wilkins by putting on the old-school Hawks jersey and attacking the rim. Steve Nash's soccer-style headbut alley-oop to Amare was another highlight. For the record, big-men get no love in these contests, and probably cant unless the rim is raised. After seeing a few old episodes of "Dazzling Dunks and Basketball Bloopers" this weekend, I am hard-pressed to find someone in the league who gets at people by dunking the wan Nique used to. Many players have flashes of Wilkins; Vince, J-Rich, K-Mart, but no one can quite combine the power-dunker and the showtime dunker the way that he did in his prime. Players can do either aspect better, but the amalgam has yet to be recreated.

The main game was interesting, but also confusing. It is always intriguing to see how a coach reacts to dealing with all these superstars, and who ends up playing when it counts. You have to strike a balance between giving everybody some run, playing the fan favorites, and playing the guys who give you the best chance to win. There are many different categories of All-Star. You have the guys who are just happy to be there (Grant Hill, Dirk, Yao), the guys who carry far too much of their team load to risk injury (Tim Duncan, KG, Shaq, and this is often a coaching decision) the something to prove guys (Ray Allen jacking 3 after 3, Kobe nearly taking the game over in crunch time).
The final group of All-Stars are my favorite reason for watching the game. These are the guys who don't know any other way to play but all out, and play the all-star game like its do-or-die. Guys like Dwyane Wade, Allen Iverson, Ben Wallace. They don't know how to play basketball any other way, and it shows as they just out-try everyone else. Kevin Garnett is in this category always, but he was a bit gimpy, and Pop limited his minutes.
Good win by the East, with no real stand-out, but a fitting MVP for AI with 10 dimes and 5 rips.

I do have to wonder why on earth LeBron was playing in the rookie game? He is a kid, and his buddies were all there, so I can see why he would be attracted. He represented for a much stronger Soph class, and let his buddy Carmelo Anthony get the MVP. However, I think if you are a starter for the big-boy game, you gotta let the ones who didn't make it get their shine on. You just risk injury in the alley-oop dunk-fest of a game, and there is a rookie who may never see the national spotlight again who you are bleeding minutes from.