If more fans want to see Yao, then Yao should start. The same is true for Shaq: if more people want to see Shaq then Shaq should start. The best players would not be left off the squad because 7 of the 12 in each team will be voted by the coaches. The coaches are not as biased as fans.
The STARTING spot is a popularity contest, yes, but people who deserve it DO get to the game based on the coaches vote. If you don't want Yao to start, maybe you need to convince the FANS that Shaq is a better person than Yao (somewhere between difficult and impossible). The starting spot IS a popularity contest and should be. That way the fans get to see who they want, not who the league, coaches, or owners want there.
you just said you would puke if he started now your saying you want him to start? stop contradicting yourself
Yes, Jim Jackson is the best small forward in the West right now and deserves to be up there. So does Cato. And Mobley. Get 'em all up there.
so you registerd on clutch fans, just to rant about how the all star game is based on popularity? for an nba fan, you obviously don't know how things work. You might as well be protesting against burger king that they should serve coke because it tastes better.
About Shaq's toe: That was LAST YEAR. I'm talking about this year. There are a lot of players in the league that had poor character but was good basketball players. You mentioned Eddie Griffin. I personally thought that he should've been in the Rookie All-Star team two years ago. He was not. That was crap. Gary Payton doesn't have good character. Does that make him a bad basketball player? Bill Laimbeer a decade and a half ago didn't have good charater. Does that mean he was a bad basketball player? What about Rodman? What about Vernon Maxwell? Character has no direct relation in all cases to basketball ability. If you have proof, please state them.
Who SHOULD start in an Allstar game? No, it should not be determined by reputations or skill levels. Those who the fan want to see the most should start in an Allstar game. No one in their mind would have chosen Carter as an all star last season. The guy played only a handful of games for the entire season. But he was voted in because fans wanted to see him. If the fans had not voted him in, he would not have made it to the allstar game last season. Did I have any problem with that? No I did not.
Ahaha. Thanks for proving my point. I respect your love for your team, just don't flame me for seeing the All-Star game in a different way.
There needs to be some degree of respectable choices in every All-Star game because it will get ridiculous if there wasn't. The best evidence to this is the coaches voting for the reserves. Clearly that is indication the league wants some control over deserving players in the All-Star game. It is proof that the All-Star game is half fan-voting and half-who-deserves-it. If you can disprove this, please state your reason instead of flaming me. Let us rationalize.
Substitute "wrestle naked in chocolate pudding" for the word "play" and you have a perfect first post... RiceDaddy, please STFU already. The rules is that fan voting determines all star starters. I didn't hear Shaq b****ing about it. If you don't like the rules, then by all means feel free to become NBA commissioner and change them...
Anyway, I'm going somewhere. Will be back later to discuss this. If we could shift this to a more logical discussion instead of a flame fest, that would be best. Later, RD7
Actually, the rules favor me in that the reserves are picked by the coaches. Proof that the commissioner doesn't want this to be entirely fan-based. I've even said this in my original post that it was a fan-based contest. Don't act as if I didn't write that. I've repeated this.
To put it simply, your arguments are a load of crap. Why don't you prove that Gary Payton amd Bill Laimbeer have bad character first? Rodman obviously had his character flaws and hurt his team greatly on many occasions with his antics. He missed practices, showed up late, and assaulted innocent people on and off the court. I'd say that even though he was still able to play at a reasonably high level, nobody offered him a job because of his poor character. You said basketball has no direct relation to basketball ability. That may be true. But as I said again and again, Shaq has all the ability in the world, but missed games due to his character flaws, which hurt his team. Last time I checked, basketball is still a team game, and it doesn't matter if you have all the ability in the world if your character flaws are keeping you off the court. So in conclusion, a player's character CAN, but NOT ALWAYS influence a player's ability to help his team win. In Shaq's case, his character DID hurt his team on at least one instance, and that is proof enough.
If you really care, dude, go write a letter to david stern, this ain't the place to do it. You are really hurting the credibility of new members and the respect they should deserve when they come on this board. newbies have recently been starting threads more often than posting in them instead of getting the feel of how the board is run. im sure it eats up space and it really does not reflect on well on new members who are true fans of the rockets. If you are coming here just to argue an already old arguement to death, get your fix and either get the feel of how things are run here or take it to another board.
