This week Minnesota sports commentators have been blasting the choices of Steve Francis and Yao Ming as All Stars. First during Friday's game between the T-Wolves and Lakers T-wolves commentor and former Rocket player Jim Peterson said. and now this today from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. NBA Insider: Steve Francis shouldn't be on All-Star team Steve Aschburner Published February 1, 2004 HOOP01 Steve Francis is a pretty talented fellow and clearly a point guard the Houston Rockets hope to lean on for the next decade or more as they build toward an NBA championship. (Assuming he learns to throw the ball to Yao Ming twice as often as he does now.) But the truth is, Francis probably was the least deserving of the 10 players picked by the fans in balloting for the All-Star Game Feb. 15 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Even Toronto's overrated Vince Carter, the No. 1 vote getter, was more legitimate. At the time the winners of the league's vast popularity contest were announced, Francis was averaging career-lows in points (16.4) and scoring (5.9), while shooting a career-worst 38.9 percent. He also was averaging 3.7 turnovers, and in the three games immediately before the balloting cutoff, shot 8-of-37 as the Rockets went 1-2. Some have wondered if Francis' vote total got a boost from his Shanghai teammate, considering the possible bloc of Internet voters in Yao's native China. Surely, they are familiar with their hero's Houston teammate and could have clicked on his name, too. Francis didn't seem bothered by his less-than-meritorious starting slot, figuring it makes up for an All-Star snub in his second season. "My second year, I thought I had one of my best seasons, and I didn't make [it]," Francis said. "It was in my hometown [Washington]. I was pretty upset." Francis' presence in L.A. in two weeks does tighten up the competition for reserve spots, to be announced Tuesday. Conference coaches vote for seven players, five by position and two wild cards. Among guards, Sam Cassell, Gary Payton, Steve Nash, Manu Ginobili and Mike Bibby all can make cases for going, but a couple will be disappointed. One other flaw in the NBA's marketing scheme is that all 10 selected starters are repeats from last year. That means a whole lot of trees and electricity were wasted just to get back to the same point as a year ago. Here are NBA Insider's starting lineups and reserves, chosen as if we were in charge: • West starters: G Sam Cassell, G Peja Stojakovic, F Kevin Garnett, F Tim Duncan, C Shaquille O'Neal. • West reserves: G Steve Nash, G Kobe Bryant, F Andrei Kirilenko, F Dirk Nowitzki, C Yao Ming. Wild cards: F/C Brad Miller, F Carmelo Anthony. • East starters: G Jason Kidd, G Tracy McGrady, F Ron Artest, F Vince Carter, C Jermaine O'Neal. • East reserves: G Allen Iverson, G Baron Davis, F LeBron James, F Kenyon Martin, C Jamaal Magloire. Wild cards: G Michael Redd, G Paul Pierce. Note Aschburner wouldn't even pick Francis as a reserve. Also Aschburner puts a new spin on the Chinese internet voting by suggesting that Francis might've gotten in by Chinese voting for him along with Yao. The saddest part of this is that even though I love the Rox I can't argue with him too much considering the Rox play this week.
What a dumb article speculation, and assumption. This still tries to implicitly state that yao's votes are "impure" and clog the system, as if internet votes from around the world don't count as much. why doesnt he just go out and say that chinese voters should only count two thirds. any idiot on clutchfans knows that 1) francis is not liked that much in china and 2) francis is hands down the most popular western conf pg in north america. if only the same argument could be used against presidential elections.... what a crappy journalist, its guys like these that make the profession lack respect.
If people are going to copy and paste an article, always include a link to the article. This is getting worse and worse lately.
Sorry about that Clutch. The Startribune has a subscription based access so to spare non-Minnesotans (there really is no reason for anyone else to sign up since it isn't that good of a paper) from having to sign up to the Startribune.com I just copied the article. For space I didn't copy the whole article just the section that pertained to the All Star Game.
Why are they even questioning the votes from China. Last I heard this is fan voting and those votes from China are from NBA fans as well. They just have a ton of more people over there that happen to like the same player.
I cannot believe the media is fighting these crusades for other players in the league. How freaking pathetic. lol. Doesn't the media have anything better to do? Nevermind, I answered my own question. ASG Starters = Popularity Contest. Does there need to be an official press release from the NBA to remind everyone of this? LOL.
First they used that lame excuse on Yao. Now they used it on Francis too. When will these sport writers give our Rocket players a break?
No reason to apologize... it just happened to be the one where I finally said something. A lot more people are copying/pasting articles without reference to it.
This wasn't from the NBA but from the Minneapolis newspaper. The Minnesota media tends to be very provincial regarding MN sports teams and I think they've been smarting over Garnett not getting the MVP the past few years.
this just shows minnesota is a bunch of crybabys. PEOPLE JUST NEED TO LEARN TO LIVE WITH IT. The fans choose yao and steve and they got them.
Any Packer fan will agree with you that MN is full of crybabies. I'm really torn here. I love the Rox and I love seeing them get recognition. It thrills me to no end seeing kids playing pick up ball down at the park wearing Francis and Yao jerseys. At the same time I've always resented players who overshadowed other players because of popularity and not necessarily skill. The prime example to me is someone like Anna Kournikova who while definately attractive really shouldn't be considered seriously as a professional tennis player. Or thinking back to the 1995 NBA Championship when from the amount of media attention and ads it seemed like it was Shaq and Penny who dominated Hakeem and Clyde than the other way around. I guess its a matter of reputation vs accomplishment and Francis and Yao getting elected to the ASG seems to me more about reputation than what they have accomplished this season.
I don't understand why some people would whine about who deserve in the all star game or who should not. The truth of the matter is, this is a choice strictly from fans, not by stats. Fans wants to see their favorite player. They vote what they like. Beside they are a proven good player, there are other factor like their characters, their other side off the court. What they contribute for the NBA and the communities. Any people who has the highest votes from fans are entitled to start in the ASG. Give them credit and nothing less.
I don't understand why anyone cares about people saying Francis doesn't "deserve" to be in the All-star game. Who really cares? But to be honest, I can see their side...I mean, being from Houston, you guys should be used to seeing good players being snubbed for not having the national popularity to garner votes and so on and so forth. Guys like Glen Davis come to mind. But in anycase, who really cares...who actually watches the all-star game anyway?
Ummm, wasn't Kournikova ranked in the top 20's for a long period of time in singles and didn't she win a couple of big tourneys in doubles? She's not a bad Tennis player, good enough to be "considered seriously". I acutally think the popularity actually hurts her game as she isn't going to devote 100% to the game like most atheletes. It isn't coincidence that she started to played worse and worse as she gets more and more popular.
