Reply With Quote
Sometimes you just gotta say what the fudge.
WTF
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...e.2f90eb0.html
Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki makes writers' NBA All-Decade second team | Dallas Mavericks News | Sports News | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News
*********** *********
***********Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki makes writers' NBA All-Decade second team*********
********************
[SIZE=-1]08:28 PM CST on Friday, February 12, 2010
*********
[SIZE=-1]By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected] *********
They were the best of the best.
They dazzled us, they were MVPs, some of them, anyway. A few won rings and ruled the decade that brought us instant replay, LeBron James and a ref scandal that threatened the integrity of the NBA.
OK, so maybe everything that happened to the NBA in the 2000s wasn't great. But you have to admit, it was a pretty awesome decade for people who love basketball at its highest level.
Will anybody forget Kobe and Shaq? Or Tim, Tony and Manu? Or even Dwyane, Shaq and Bennett?
That would be Bennett Salvatore, of course.
On the serious side, the all-2000s team includes some obvious choices. Or did it?
Our exclusive panel of a dozen writers from across the country, each of whom has covered the NBA for all or part of the last decade and most of whom have been connected to the league for two decades or more, named only one player as a unanimous first-team pick to our all all-decade team: Kobe Bryant.
Not even Shaquille O'Neal rated unanimous treatment among our experts. That's because some chose to put Tim Duncan at center, which is the position he most often plays, even if he's introduced in the starting lineup as a forward.
The diversity of the voting proves just how good the basketball was over the last decade. There were a whole lot of great players, many of them still going strong into the new decade and some of them on display this week at Cowboys Stadium for the NBA's All-Star Game.
So here's a look at our all-decade first and second teams.
FIRST TEAM
KEVIN GARNETT
It's true that he languished in Minnesota for many years and really had success there only when he was joined by Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell in 2004, reaching the Western Conference finals. But his career was 100 percent validated when he was traded to Boston and the Celtics picked up a le in 2008, after which Garnett yelled the now-famous "Anything is possible!" line. That ring is really all that separates Garnett from Dirk Nowitzki, most of our voters believe.
LEBRON JAMES
He didn't arrive in the NBA until the 2003-04 season, but in no time James stamped himself as one of the pre-eminent players in the game. He got Cleveland to the NBA Finals in 2007 and led the league in scoring the following season. He's simply a freak of nature with outrageous basket-to-basket speed for somebody who is 6-8 and 240 pounds. Even though the best is likely still to come from James, he clearly is one of the two top wing players of the last decade.
SHAQUILLE O'NEAL
For the first six years of the decade, nobody dominated the paint like Shaq. Not Yao Ming. Not Dwight Howard. Not even the tandem of David Robinson and Tim Duncan early in the decade. O'Neal won four championship rings in the Aughts, and it was the Big Aristotle who smartly escorted Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade to their les early in the decade, all amassed in a seven-year span. O'Neal is winding down his career now, and nobody is banking on him helping LeBron to LeRing. But his résumé is unparalleled.
STEVE NASH
Two MVP awards were enough to convince our panel that he was the point guard of the decade. After he left the Mavericks, with whom he was great, he was absolutely terrific with the Phoenix Suns. And although he never got them close to an NBA championship, he's the trigger man for the most fun offense in the league. Nash apparently didn't get the memo that his body was supposed to start breaking down as soon as he left the Mavs. Six seasons later, he's still going strong, leading the league in assists.
KOBE BRYANT
It was a wild 10 years for Kobe. He became public enemy No. 1 in Colorado, and it had nothing to do with him bashing the Nuggets. He won three rings from 2000-2002 but got little credit because Shaq was on his side. Then he led the Lakers nowhere without Shaq until a fellow named Pau Gasol showed up with a ribbon and bow. And what a gift it was. But give Bryant credit. He figured out a way to parlay his incredible will to win and end-of-game heroics – along with Gasol's well-rounded play – for a le all his own.
SECOND TEAM
DIRK NOWITZKI
Power forward
Points: 13
1st-team votes: 2
Universally considered one of the toughest matchups in the game, and reached the NBA Finals in 2006.
PAUL PIERCE
Small forward
Points: 5
1st-team votes: 0
Pierce was picked right after Dirk in the 1998 draft, and he and the Big German would go 1-2 if that draft were redone.
TIM DUNCAN
Center
Points: 20
1st-team votes: 9
We don't want to hear about him being a power forward. Our panel split votes at both positions, but he's a center in our book.
JASON KIDD
Point guard
Points: 15
1st-team votes: 4
A couple of appearances in the Finals are augmented by the fact that he made himself into a really good shooter in addition to a great passer.
DWYANE WADE
Shooting guard
Points: 8
1st-team votes: 1
He's given us some of the game's greatest highlights since arriving in 2003 and won a le in '06, much to the Mavs' chagrin.
Also receiving votes: Allen Iverson (5, 1 first-team vote), Yao Ming (3), Vince Carter (2), Dwight Howard (2), Amare Stoudemire, Ben Wallace, Tracy McGrady, Chauncey Billups (1 each).
The voters: Fran Blinebury, NBA.com; Dave D'Alessandro, Newark Star-Ledger; Kelly Dwyer, Yahoo Sports; Tom Enlund, Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal; Mark Heisler, Los Angeles Times; Jan Hubbard, Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Mitch Lawrence, New York Daily News; Steve Luhm, Salt Lake Tribune; Mike Monroe, San Antonio Express-News; David Moore, The Dallas Morning News; Chris Perkins, NBA.com; Eddie Sefko, The Dallas Morning News
Sometimes you just gotta say what the fudge.
So their panel splitted votes for Duncan at Center and Power Forward, so they put Duncan in the 2nd team for being a Center when he is the player of that decade. Hilarious.
Seems like their panel of writers across the country split Duncan between Power Forward and Center. That might have hurt his votes, but he still got more first team votes than Dirk. Votes like this are subjective. Duncan's resume will put him where he belongs all-time.
crofl Dallas Morning News?
wgaf
ING FAIL.
Just for this now I won't go for Dallas if the face the Lakers.
I don't think it was an intentional thing on the part of DMN, look at the voters. It's just cuz Timmy's so versatile people didn't know where to put him.
Srsly, there's no wai anyone would say Kevin Garnett is 1st Team when Timmy's on the bench. NO WAI!
high standards to be a media sports journalist.
I stopped reading after this:
Dallas Morning who?
is this real life?
two of the starters have never even won a championship. they even stated that Garnett was a joke until he arrived in Boston!
lol Dallas Morning News
"You can change your views.
But that don't change the Dallas Morning News."
-- Michael Martin Murphy
Never thought I'd say I agree with this guy lol
Paul Pierce has had a joyful career so far but I don't think he should be considered any nobler than VC or any other player his caliber. It's during these 3 years that Pierce has been quite a name around the league thanks to the success of his team, which was also fueled quite a lot by the efforts of many other players including Ray Allen and KG. Pierce has been made representative of his team because he has been a celtic in green ever since he joined NBA in 98, which makes his Celtic career longer than that of anyone else currently playing on that team.
So Duncan got 9 first place votes... and there were only 12 writers voting...? Who cares if they split positions or not - do the math.
Yeah wtf I just saw this
wtf
We don't want to hear about him being a power forward. Our panel split votes at both positions, but he's a center in our book.
And leBron is a power forward , no he is a point guard, no wait a second a shooting guard?
well we do not want to hear about that
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
