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It means we all have to do our part to make sure Tim IS there! Vote every day and every time you attend a game.
This has to be the NBA's doing since Duncan will have to go to the game anyway. Don't think the Spurs or Duncan would request this.
It means we all have to do our part to make sure Tim IS there! Vote every day and every time you attend a game.
For every you and me, there are 100,000 Yao Ming fans.
Define him how? By the kids?
Every generation is different. I look back at my time growing up, I see Hakeem, DRob, Ewing, Jordan, Pippen, Barkley, Shaq, and Malone. Now it's TMac, Bron, Wade, Bosh, Kobe, Nash, Duncan, Garnett, Dirk... I'm told of the 80s when I was too young, Magic, Kareem, Bird, McHale, so on and so forth...
When we look back we see championships, accomplishments... out of all those names here recently I can only read 3 that stand with or above Duncan. So don't you assume future generations will look back and see the same for TD? We talk about how good Hakeem was, or Shaq and crap. The next generations will say Duncan ... Kobe... then the underneath.
Basically to me though I don't see why a smart NBA fan would care what kids would assume or think of past players, speaking of the future anyways. They will be too choked up on who's now like it always is.
It was posted earlier that Yao did really well with the paper ballots - so why does he have more fans in the arenas than Timmy? Yao is pretty good - but he's not great like Timmy. And that's not just my opinion since Timmy has been called the greatest POWER FORWARD to ever play the game.
BTW - since it's the media guys who say Tim's the greatest Power Forward ever - why in the world was he put on the ballot as a center?
http://realgm.com/src_beyondthearc/102/20071114/changing_of_the_(forward)/
Changing Of The (Forward)
Authored by Andrew Perna
The NBA 2008 All-Star ballots were released on Wednesday, and for the first time since the mid-nineties there will be some drastic change on the Western front.
The Western Conference has been represented by two forwards every year since 1998 (there was no game played in the strike year of ’99). This year neither of those men will be in the starting lineup for the West, with one on the East Coast and another strangely listed among the conference’s centers.
Kevin Garnett has made ten consecutive all-star appearances as a forward for the Western Conference, with eight of those coming as a starter (voted in by the fans). This season he’ll undoubtedly make his eleventh-straight appearance, but this time he’ll be representing the Boston Celtics and the Eastern squad.
He also seems like a lock to hold down one of the conference’s starting slots, pushing either Toronto’s Chris Bosh or Indiana’s Jermaine O’Neal out of the picture. In the process, he’s also opened up a space for the likes of Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Carmelo Anthony or Carlos Boozer. Throughout their careers each of those Western forwards has played second-fiddle to Garnett. Thanks to a mid-summer blockbuster, two of those MVP-caliber players will advance into the conference’s all-star starting lineup.
You might ask – why won’t Tim Duncan be holding down one of the West’s starting positions come February? Simple administrative error, if you ask me. You see Duncan, who represented the West as a starting center last season as an injury replacement from Yao Ming, has been placed on this year’s ballot as a center.
That’s like being sent to purgatory for an eternity for an NBA center. Yao Ming’s huge Chinese fan base will never allow Yao not to start for the Western squad. He simply ac ulates too many votes, too quickly, for any player to overcome. Duncan will go down as one of the best, if not the best, power forwards in the history of the game, but he won’t start for this year’s all-star team listed as a ‘center.’
It truly signals the changing of the guard, or shall I say forward, in the Western Conference. For the first time during his Hall of Fame career Garnett will suit up for the East, and for just the second time during his ten-year career Duncan will start the all-star game on the bench.
Now let’s imagine the Lakers finally pull the plug on Kobe Bryant before this season’s trade deadline and send him east of the Mississippi. Bryant has been one of the two starting guards for the Western Conference for eight-straight seasons – 2008 would mark the ninth.
Traditionalists, who can be adverse to change, might spontaneously combust. We may see three first-time starters on this year’s Western Conference all-star squad. That’s something we haven’t seen since Michael Jordan was putting the finishing touches on the Chicago Bulls ’ second three-peat.
........
although it would seem like an insult to all the Spurs fans, all will be well.
ASG's don't matter if your team don't win the Finals.
Tim could use the rest. ASG's drain you. not only the game itself, but the schedules, the interviews, the media, the advertisements, tapings, etc. there's a lot of things to do when you go to an ASG.
it would be an honor if all 3 go. but i'd rather that they rest. Tony could use the time to rest. Manu could use it (after all, he still has the Olympics afterwards). Let everybody else drain their stars.
ASG is a ing beauty contest, bread and circuses, for fans, a way for NBA to raise big money with advertising.
If only the coaches and players voted, ASG starters/rosters would be meaningful.
Yao is represented by an entire country. China is basically a huge Houston Rockets fanbase. Not only is Duncan represented by a country with 1/5th the Population of China, he is only backed by a -single- city in that country. It's San Antonio and a few stragglers vs. every sports fan in China. Even a lot of people who aren't sports fans in China still cheer and vote for Yao because he represents their country and their success in the NBA.
Flood the NBA office with emails on this - mine was sent. Absurd. He starts as a PF, that is what he is.
Closing the barn door after the horses have run out. All the e-mails in the world won't change this; they only prove that you're aware of the voting, which is really all the league cares about.
This whole thing is much ado about nothing.
I already sent mine this morning! I told them All Star voting was a joke and this ballot just proves it!
This is what I was referring to in my earlier post - why does Yao get more votes by the fans in the arenas than Timmy does?As to Yao, people have a misconception about his balloting. He gets voted in by the NBA fans who vote in the arenas-- not the online ballots.
maybe only 2 of them have internet access...
You ought to have figured this out. This isn't a stupid move by the NBA at all. It's actually a of a marketing ploy. They need to advertise all the new young players coming up but they can't do that with a 10 year veteran like TD who is still considered a lock at the PF position by most experts and fans.Wasn't Francisco Elson on the ballet last year? Elson got robbed
Seriously though, even though I don't care, this is pretty stupid by the NBA. If the Spurs claim to start Duncan at power forward every single game, I don't know how the NBA can turn around and put him on the center ballot. That's amazingly weak.
By changing his position they do two things:
1. Yao will probably get the nod as starting center if he continues to play as well as he has. Since Tim doesn't regularly play center he won't get the nod.
2. The power forward position now opens up and presents a of a fight for the spot among the newbies. This will mean great publicity and marketing that they wouldn't get if dull old Tim was in the balloting for PF.
Obviously the NBA thinks it time for a changing of the guard.
Ok.
@ "probably"
Power forward? The ballot lumps together small forwards and power forwards. It's probably going to be Carmelo and either Marion, Durant or *gulp* Battier.
I wonder how close Yi Jianlian is going to be to starting in the East.
didnt battier have almost as many votes as dirk last year?
Dirk Nowitzki (Dal) 1,276,304; Shane Battier (Hou) 1,025,643; Shawn Marion (Pho) 551,173; Lamar Odom (LAL) 438,824; Josh Howard (Dal) 412,102; Pau Gasol (Mem) 364,459; Carlos Boozer (Utah) 359,882.
Could easily happen. The Chinese are the most zenophobic people on earth. If they flood the voting for Li, the NBA will have to take a deep breath say nothing derogatory.
Stern and the owners are licking their lips over the world market and especially China and the boundless possiblities they see for additional revenue from that market as the Chinese yuppies start spending all those dollars they have been ac ulating.
So putting Tim Duncan in the center position on the ballot opens the door for a fresh face such as Dirk Nowitzki or Shane Battier.
Props to the NBA for the foresight.
Why is Antoine Walker a guard?
Why isn't Devin Harris on there while Michael Finley is?
How in the world did Scola make it while Yi didn't?
The West's forward position looks weaker than ever.
He is not in the ballot. It will be much harder then.
Another good question.
Well, at least Yi wasn't put on the ballet. The NBA can avoid dealing with that issue for another year.
It's going to be Carmelo and either Dirk, Durant or Battier.
hahaha ya know what this means!!
Yao > Duncan!!
Duncan has been a center his entire career, doesn't matter what the roster spot says.
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