By DavidKaye
The starters for next months game in Las Vegas were announced today,and the results in the Eastern Conference are as follows. Dwyane Wade and Gilbert Arenas will start at the guard positions, LeBron James and Chris Bosh at the forward positions and somehow Shaquille O'Neal will be starting at center.
Shaq was voted to his 14th straight All-Star team, but this time he did not deserve the selection. He has only played in five games this season and has averaged 12.2 PPG and 7 RPB. Conversely, Orlando Magic superstar Dwight Howard is averaging 17 PPG, 12.5 RPB and 1.9 BPG. Not to mention, Howard has played in 43 games and has his Magic 3.5 games ahead of the Heat in the Southeast division.
The Diesels selection was obviously based on name recognition and popularity, but he would even admit that he doesn't deserve the selection. The NBA needs to institute a minimum games played rule if you are to be selected to the All-Star team. Both Dwyane Wade and LeBron James deserved their selection over any other player at their position. LeBron captured the second most votes in NBA All-Star game history this year as he received 2,516,049 votes.
Gilbert Arenas squeaked out Vince Carter by 3,010 votes for the second starting spot at the guard position. This was the fourth-closest race in NBA All-Star history, but Mr. Hibachi as he is now known as deserved the selection by the fans.
Besides Dwight Howard's omission as the East's starting center, every other player deserved the starting nod. You can make the case that Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal should have been selected over Toronto's Chris Bosh because Bosh missed 12 games with an injury, but Toronto's franchise player is having a stellar season.
All in all, the Eastern Conference has produced a starting five that matches up well to the starting five of the West. In my next NBA Blog, I will share who the starters in the Western Conference are, and how in the world Steve Nash was not voted in by the fans.
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