If you have been following
basketball this season you know that a team that was not good last year, the
Atlanta Hawks, are now the best team in basketball with the best record in
their conference, at 37-8. You also know that they stretched a 19 game winning
streak that ended in February. They
have a wide variety of players who each specialize in a distinct part of their
system. Kyle Korver is their SG and is the first player in history to average
over 90% from the free-throw line, 50% on field goals, and over 50% on
three-point shooting. Steph Curry is leading All-Star voting and is well
deserved to lead it, but people like Steph because of his shooting ability
saying that he is the best shooter in the league at 90% free-throws, over 40%
field goals, and 40% on three-point shots (ESPN.com). His shooting compared to
Kyle Korver, is cute. Korver has almost a 60% percent field goals the past ten
games, while Curry just cracked 50%. He
torched one of the best defensive teams in my Chicago Bulls hitting seven of
nine 3 point shots. But Kyle Korver isn't even on the list for the All-Star
voting, he didn't crack the top-ten with this great shooting. An aging injured
Kobe Bryant got over 1.15 million votes and Korver didn't get much to any. But
let’s stop talking about Korver, let's talk about his team. The Hawks are on
fire right now and have great players like Jeff Teague the leader with 17.1
points per game, and Al Horford is averaging almost 18 points the last ten
games with 8 rebounds. The whole team effort is amazing, Millsap is passing way
more and letting other players shine for their unique abilities like DeMarre
Carroll who is having a breakout season.
That was a week ago and the
All-Star rosters have already been decided. No Hawks players got the starting
spots but 4 of them got into the reserves, Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Kyle
Korford and Jeff Teague. All 3 of which, got in only by the coaches votes.
Jimmy Butler who is also having an astounding season and is the leading
candidate for the Most Improved Player award also had to have been selected by
the coaches because the people didn't pick him. A guy named Dwyane Wade got
picked by the fans, even though he is not an exciting player and is 33. The
Heat, the team Wade plays for is having a losing record being 26-33. So how is
it fair that a player who is carrying a very good championship caliber team in
the Chicago Bulls with Jimmy Butler, losing to an aging player who is aching
and playing on a losing team in front of fans who don't even care anymore
because LeBron James left? I think we all can agree that that's not right.
Kevin Durant is one of my
favorite players. Unfortunately, KD has been injured all of this season and has
only played 22 games this season. He got in to the All-Star game and replaced
an exciting player named Damian Lillard. Damian Lillard is 24 years old and
plays for the Portland Trailblazers. In last year’s playoffs he hit a long
three-pointer with 00.3 second left in the fourth quarter against the Houston
Rockets. If he hadn't hit that shot the Blazers would be shut out from the
second round of the playoffs again, but Lillard racked up his confidence and
hit it. The crowd at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon went berserk, Lillard
was tackled into a dog pile by his teammates, and the Blazers finally made it
to the second round of the playoffs. Damian held a mic and shouted "Rip
CITY!" to the crowd he didn't know that he would become even better the
following season. Lillard is averaging 21 points per game, 6 assists per game,
and 5 rebounds per game, leading the Blazers to a record of 39-19 as of March
3rd .Damian was sure to have been rallied up to make it to this year’s NBA
All-Star game but he got snubbed. He couldn't even make it to be a replacement
player. Even KD thought that was unjust.
Boogie Cousins is having fun in
Sacramento even though his team is losing, he still is putting up massive
numbers 24 PPG, 13 RPG, and 2 blocks per game(ESPN.com).DeMarcus 'Boogie'
Cousins has been a fan-favorite with the Kings and loves it there. He also got
to be on Team USA on the FIBA World Cup team last summer, stealing the show
along with Anthony Davis. Meanwhile, a player named Kobe Bryant is injured and
is likely to miss all of the season, even though he was selected to be an
All-Star which he deserved. Does that mean Boogie can replace Kobe by being the
replacement All-Star player for the West, well, we'll have to find out because
right now the NBA is in a frenzy in preparation for the game. But Boogie must
be spooked to be playing that well and only to become a replacement for the
game, how good are the players? Some are better and some are a little worse.
Like Blake Griffin, a fan's selection player who is averaging 22 PPG, and 7
RPG(ESPN.com). Griffin has already been a Slam Dunk champion and a NBA draft
first pick player. How does a player who is not playing better than another
player and who does not have many awards get to the All-Star game in a blowout.
You'll just have to ask the 700,000 people who voted for Blake.
A week after I wrote the last
sentence, Blake Griffin got injured, which means his replacement will be,
Damian Lillard, the player I talked about earlier. I don't know how this
happened, that everybody who got snubbed made it, I think it is crazy how lucky
the NBA got. Now Adam Silver, the commissioner, does not have to explain to
some reporters why MVP candidate Damian Lillard, who is leading a team to a
39-19 record is not in the All-Star Game. They caught a break, but next year
the events that caused those players to make it will probably not happen, so
will the NBA take out fan voting and not have to face the heat of how great
players are getting snubbed, or will they get criticized by reporters, writers,
bloggers, and people who aren't biased on choosing the same 'used to be good'
player to make the All-Star game?
I can change that by writing more
and more, trying to get more page views and informing others of this problem.
I’m also trying to find some e-mails of commentators and NBA writers that
support this, like Jeff Van Gundy, or Bill Simmons (I don't know if he supports
it). That's all I can do for now, because I don't have people that can spread
the word like other bloggers have. I hope I have made you think about his
problem, and I may have even convinced you to want to stop this.
Works
Cited
"Portland Trail Blazers Basketball
Clunhouse- ESPN". ESPN.com, Accessed 3-11-15.
http://espn.go.com/nba/team/_/name/por/portland-trail-blazers
"Atlanta
Hawks Basketball Clubhouse- ESPN". ESPN.com, Accessed 3-11-15. http://espn.go.com/nba/team/_/name/atl/atlanta-hawks
"Miami Heat
Basketball Clubhouse- ESPN.com". ESPN.com, Accessed 3-11-15. http://espn.go.com/nba/team/_/name/mia/miami-heat
"Kyle Korver
Stats, News, Videos, Highlights, Pictures, Bio- Atlanta Hawks- ESPN.com".
ESPN.com, Accessed 3-11-15. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2011/kyle-korver
"Stephen
Curry Stats, News, Videos, Highlight, Pictures, Bio- Golden State Warriors-
ESPN" ESPN.com, Accessed 3-11-15.
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/3975/stephen-curry
"DeMarre
Carroll Stats, News, Videos, Highlights, Pictures, Bio- Atlanta Hawks-
ESPN" ESPN.com, Accessed 3-11-15.
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/3970/demarre-carroll
"Dwyane Wade
Stats, News, Videos, Highlights, Pictures, Bio- Miami Heat-ESPN.com, Accessed
3-11-15. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/1987/dwyane-wade
"DeMarcus
Cousins Stats, News Videos, Highlights, Pictures, Bio,- Sacramento Kings-
ESPN.com" ESPN.com, Accessed 3-11-15.
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/1987/dwyane-wade
"Jimmy
Butler Stats, News Videos, Highlights, Pictures, Bio,- Chicago Bulls-
ESPN.com" ESPN.com, Accessed 3-11-15.
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/6430/jimmy-butler
"Damian
Lillard Stats, News Videos, Highlights, Pictures, Bio,- Portland Trail Blazers ESPN.com"
ESPN.com, Accessed 3-11-15. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/6606/damian-lillard