Very simple- player have switched categories. Until this year, McGrady has always been on the ballot as a guard- this is why he and Allen Iverson were the starting guards in the East for a few years, and why he and Bryant started at guard last year for the West. Same with Shaq and Yao- Shaq is #2 in voting under Yao, yet he dominates the voting in the East. Lebron was on the ballot as a guard last year- which is much better this year because there's a logjam of great guards (Iverson, Billups, Wade) and not as many forwards (although Howard and Bosh will change that soon). KG received the most votes of anyone not elected to start.
Forwards in the West that deserve an All Star roster spot: Tim Duncan Dirk Nowitski Pau Gasol Tracy McGrady Shawn Marion Kevin Garnett Carmelo Anthony Elton Brand Andrei Kirilenko How many can you take? For sure Duncan, McGrady, Dirk, Pau, Marion, and Brand have to be there, that's already six, half the roster, add Garnett or Carmelo and that's seven. Hmm...
KG gets more points, boards, and assists than Pau Gasol, and shoots a better percentage while turning the ball over less. And he's frankly a much better player, regardless of stats, and has much more of a proven track record than does Gasol. Garnett will get in before Gasol does. For that matter, Carmelo will get in before Gasol as well.
The 5th best Western Conference team has to have an All Star, the only player who deserves it on the Grizzlies is Pau Gasol, either way there will be some forwards that get screwed next week.
Does it seem weird to anyone that the commissioner is picking the starter when the coaches haven't picked the back-ups yet? Once the line-up is set, it makes sense to have one guy pick a replacement, because time is short. But, since we knew well in advance that Jermaine would be out, they could have had the coaches choose the replacement. Or else, Stern could have already picked out the replacement before the coaches vote on the reserves.
Use this to rebuke the Chinese myth in the future (actually found on a Lakers board): USA Population 295,734,134 Internet Usage Statistics: 203,824,428 Internet users as of Dec./2005, 68.1% of the population, according to Nielsen//NetRating China Population 1,306,313,812 China Has 111 Million Internet Users CNNIC Jan. 17, 2005 - By the end of 2005, the total number of Internet users in mainland China reached 111 million, a 17 million increase over 2004. Total number of online computers: 49.5 million, website: 694,200, and the total number of ".cn" domain registration is 1,096,924. China has four times the population America has yet has half the amount of internet users compared to the US. You guys need to stop being so ignorant. Yao led all UNITED STATES votes over all centers over the past few years. It is what it is. This is the All-Star voting system for the NBA so deal with it or don't watch the All-Star game, simple as that. You guys don't need to bash a whole country though. How many people in China do you think can afford computers and internet service? Do you guys know what China's terrain looks like? You assume they have telephone lines and cable lines running across the rivers and valleys and mountain sides of China? Some cities in America don't have cable internet service do you think a billion Chinese, a lot of whom are poor live like we do here in the US? Like someone else said already "this happens every year". Do me a favor, close your eyes or something when TMac and Yao enter the game, don't watch the game at all, boycott.
or better yet, use the nba's own proof from 2004 (not much would have changed in the way people vote) when he was going up against shaq.
