…I can beat Usain Bolt in a race. And CP at hoops. I swear. So I say, write-me into the All-Star Game, nation of India! Spite your Chinese neighbor!

I just so hate this. TMac starting will be the biggest travesty since A.C. Green in the 80s. Injured or not (and I’m not sure why anyone would vote for an injured player), it’s not clear that he should be starting for his TEAM, let alone for his conference. He’s shooting under 39%. That’s almost as bad as Baron Davis! Maybe TMac will have the good manners to beg off and plead injury.

It was one level of bad back in the day, when we got paper ballot shenanigans and Green and B.J. Armstrong on the team because, hey, people new the names of Magic’s teammates and MJ’s teammates. But it seems worse now, where internet voting from 2 Billion Chinese determines the roster. How long before Yi Jianlin and Sun Yue are fixtures?

Anytime someone cites a player’s All-Star appearances as part of an argument concerning the greatness of said player, you are allowed to cal SHENANIGANS!

This also goes for MVP, ROY, MIP, COY, etc. That’s not to say that these awards can’t help to tell the story of a player’s contribution to the game, but they are so far from definitive it’s ridiculous.

And for those of you that think I’m just blowing steam because CP lost out to Kobe last year, consider this: how can we take an award seriously when only an elite few get to vote for the recipient based on a set of criteria that changes from voter to voter? Baseball and football have the same problem. Hockey might, too, but I don’t know one iota about sports involving ice… so there you go.