The NBA All Stars we deserve

Even though his performances this season have been inherently the exact opposite of what defines a 'star'm we can't talk about the NBA All Star Game without talking about Kobe Bryant. The Kobe Bryant who has been of the NBA's greatest ever players and winners and is now in his amazing 20th season in the league. The Kobe Bryant who plays for one of the league's most popular franchises and has been an NBA All Star 17 times. The Kobe Bryant who has a record four All Star MVP awards, started more games than anyone (14), scored more points in the game than anyone (280) and was even a Slam Dunk champion at the 1998 All Star Weekend.

That Kobe Bryant has aged and suffered injuries and is not a good or efficient basketball player anymore. After two decades, he has announced his farewell to the game of basketball, and as the horizon nears to the end of his career, his fans grew more fervent in their idol worship. He doesn't deserve to be an All Star this season. But as the first returns of the fan ballot indicate, he is - unsurprisingly, as one of the most popular players in history - going to be an All Star this season.

Kobe is leading the fan voting so far by a fan margin, far ahead of the NBA's new golden child Stephen Curry and with more votes than LeBron James and Kevin Durant combined. The balance between 'deserving' and 'popular' players has forever been a matter of debate in the fan community, and even though I believe that only the most deserving 12 players per conference should be All Stars, I vote for my favourite players (whether they deserve it or not) when I fill the ballot!

So yes, Kobe Bryant is going to be an All Star this season. But before we accept and embrace that eventuality, let's celebrate the NBA's top players through the first two months of the season and name the players who actually deserve to make the 2016 NBA All Star teams in Toronto.

East

• Starters: Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, LeBron James, Paul George, Andre Drummond.
  
• Bench: Avery Bradley, Carmelo Anthony, Pau Gasol, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Paul Millsap, Kemba Walker.
  

LeBron James is so brilliant that despite being the best player in the East so far, the four-time MVP is being overlooked because of the high standards he has set for himself. His Cavs have the best record in the conference. Paul George bounced back from a terrible leg injury better than ever, and would've been the NBA's most amazing stories had it not been for the Warriors' blistering start. Kyle Lowry has carried the Raptors to the best record in the Atlantic Division and is the unlikely best point guard in the East right now. He will get a lot of home-team love in Toronto. Jimmy Butler is one of the best two-way players in the league as he leads the Bulls in scoring while also being their hardest-working anchor on defense. Andre Drummond is a double-double machine and has racked up 20-20 games this season, too. He currently enjoys a huge lead in the rebounding bracket over the rest of the league.

Don't be shocked that I named Avery Bradley as an All Star. The 16-13 Celtics have played surprisingly well this season, and while Isaiah Thomas has been their team's leading scorer, Bradley has been the team's most consistent performer on both ends of the floor. Carmelo Anthony continues to do what he does for the Knicks, putting up big scoring numbers on a mediocre team. Pau Gasol has been the Bulls' second-best player after Butler and is one of the team's most consistent performers night to night. Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have both played at a high level all season and deserve to be All Stars for the surging Heat. The Atlanta Hawks, as usual, are chugging steadily along, and their points/rebounds leader Paul Millsap has been the team's best player. Kemba Walker has enjoyed a fantastic breakout year so far for the Hornets and should become an All Star for the first time in his career.

West

• Starters: Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin.
  
• Bench: James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins, Dirk Nowitzki, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Chris Paul, LaMarcus Aldridge.
  

Most of the West starters are no-brainers. Stephen Curry is a basketball supernova right now, the best player on planet Earth, and the MVP favourite by a wide margin. Kawhi Leonard has been absolutely brilliant as well, and second only to Curry as my MVP favourite this season. He's scoring a team and career high in points and is the reigning DPOY might be a DPOY favourite again. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant have carried the Thunder mostly on their exceptional talent alone, and take turns from night to night alternating as the MVP favourites of their own team. While the Clippers have been a little slower out the gates this year, Blake Griffin hasn't skipped a beat, and has shown the ability to be unstoppable offensively on most nights.

Despite the Rockets' slow start, they have found some semblance of form of late on the back of James Harden, who continues to pour in MVP-type numbers on the offensive end. Ditto can be said about DeMarcus Cousins who has performed exceptionally well for a Sacramento team that started slow but has improved a little off late, especially when he is on the floor. Dirk Nowitzki refuses to age, climbing up to sixth in the NBA's All Time scoring records while his Mavericks continue to be a pleasant surprise early in the season. Draymond Green may be one of the most important players in the NBA, an elite defender capable of guarding all five positions in the league, the assists leader of his own team, and a player capable of putting up double-doubles on a regular basis. Green keeps the stellar Warriors chugging along, and his teammate Klay Thompson has pushed his own form to the elite level in recent weeks to be considered for All Star status again. Chris Paul is slightly slower but still one of the best PGs in the NBA for the Clippers, while LaMarcus Aldridge continues to become a better fit for the 25-6 Spurs game after game in the post.

Snubs: Kevin Love, Reggie Jackson, John Wall, Damian Lillard, Marc Gasol, Anthony Davis... and Kobe Bryant!

Well, the lists above are the players who I feel have performed at either a) the highest level, b) at a high level for the best teams or c) both. But when I fill my own fan ballot, I don't necessarily vote for the starters as mentioned above. Once again, I have continued my tradition of voting for players best on bias and favouritism instead of talent and value. Here is how I've filled out my own All Star ballots:

East: Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire, Pau Gasol.
West: Ricky Rubio, Deron Williams, Metta World Peace, Kevin Durant, DeMarcus Cousins.

Don't ask me for an explanation; these are my favourite players - you can have your own!

Upset Watch 2014: NBA Playoffs 1st Round Preview

Welcome to the 2014 playoffs’ edition my now trademarked, annual, ‘Upset Watch’ feature. For the first round every year, I like to present a preview in terms of percentage probabilities; as in the probability of an underdog (lower seed) to upset the favourite in every series (the higher seed). It’s an inexact science, occasionally wrong, but I promise you, thoroughly entertaining.

Here – in ascending order of least probably upset to most – is my preview of all the series in the First Round.

Click here for full feature.

Market Men: Biggest names on the NBA’s trading block

3 PM Eastern Time on February 20th – that’s when the NBA market shuts down. And with the deadline looming, teams around the league are exploring, contemplating, and imagining. Some are imagining opposing players in their own jerseys, some are imagining hording up future draft picks, and some are focused single-mindedly on the accounts chart, hoping to clear up as much cap space as possible. Some wanna get better now, some wanna get better later, and some are clueless.

There aren’t too many big names or current All Stars involved in serious trade rumours this season, but here are the top players that could be on the market if their team gets an exciting offer or two.

Click here to read full feature.

The AllMost Stars Team

By now, you've probably seen the 2014 NBA All Star rosters. You've probably voted for many of the starters and you probably agree with most of the reserves that the coaches voted in. But as it is with every year, the list of players snubbed at the All Star Game becomes almost as interesting as the list of those who did make it.

This year is no different. Every team feels like their star should be an All Star, and argues incessantly to the relative merits of their own representatives over the others. Then, there are those like Grantland's Zach Lowe, who argued that there are no 'snubs' in the West, just great players unfortunate in the wrong conference. It's true that the conference imbalance also makes for imbalanced All Star teams. And at the end of the day, each team can only have 12 players, so no matter what a personal definition of an 'All Star' is, the final list cannot fit them all. Now whether or not you agree with the contentious voting system (fans for the starters + coaches for the reserves) is a whole different issue.

Here is my list of nine Almost All Stars this season, or AllMost Stars. One could make an argument for most of them to make the East or West squads, but only a few of them could truly replace someone less deserving actually in the final roster. One of them will definitely make it though, since Kobe Bryant has been ruled out to injury and the NBA's brand new commissioner Adam Silver will make it one of his first duties to choose a replacement in the West.

West

Goran Dragic: 'The Dragon' has been an absolute monster this season, and if the NBA wants to find another guard to take Kobe's spot, Dragic should be a no-brainer. Dragic has been the heart and soul of the Phoenix Suns, who are the league's most amazing story this season. He has lifted the team up from the expected tail-end of the West up to sixth place. He's averaging a career-high 20 points per game this season to go with over six assists. Most impressively, he has helped the Suns survive the loss of Eric Bledsoe without missing a step in their rankings.

Anthony Davis: Davis could give Dragic a run for his money in the race for Kobe's replacement, despite playing a completely different position. First of all, Davis would become the only representative of the All Star Game's host city - New Orleans - in the game. Davis has improved his game dramatically this season and is putting up historically impressive numbers. Davis is averaging 20.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and a league-leading 3.3 blocks a game this season for the Pelicans, developing into a rare, dominant two-way big man. Despite the fact that the Pelicans are far outside the playoff race in the West, he has a PER of 27.1, fifth best in the league. Ultimately, it's his team's losing record that kept him out of the West roster.

DeMarcus Cousins: Cousins missed the roster because of his team, too, which are currently bottom-feeders in the West. But don't blame it on 'Boogie' - Cousins has been an absolute beast, enjoying his best season with career highs in points (22.6 ppg) and rebounds (11.6 rpg) as well as enjoying the NBA’s highest usage rate.

Mike Conley: The numbers - although impressive - might not scream 'All Star', but don't let the Grizzlies' slow pace fool you into ignoring Conley's contributions. Averaging a career-high 18 points per game, Conley helped keep the Grizzlies barely afloat in Marc Gasol's absence, and upon Gasol's return, helped the team propel to a 9-2 streak. Still, it might be too little too late in the West, which is loaded with talented guards including Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Tony Parker, and James Harden.

Tim Duncan: A veteran of 14 All Star games, T-Robot missed the cut for only the third time int he last 16 years! With the Spurs suffering a mix of injuries, Duncan has helped Parker in keeping the team near the top of the West and is still putting up consistently impressive numbers. With 15 points and 10 rebounds per game, it's clear that Duncan - even as he pushes close to 38 - hasn't conceded to Father Time just yet.

David Lee: A regular double-double machines, Lee's offensive numbers could put him in All Star consideration nearly every season, and this year, he has been the second-best player for the successful Warriors. Lee rounds up four big AllMost Stars out West, and I would've picked any of them in the spot over Dirk Nowitzki. Lee has averaged 19 points on 51.6 percent shooting and 9.8 rebounds this season.

East

Lance Stephenson: Probably the biggest snub of either conference, Stephenson has been rightly miffed at being snubbed by Eastern Conference coaches to make the Eastern reserves, despite being the third-best player in the conference's best team, leading the league in triple doubles, and being a lock-down defensive player. Stephenson is averaging career highs across the board and could be one of the top choices for the Most Improved Player award. For now, he has made it clear that "I already had a chip on my shoulder and it made me even worse. Now I'm going to kill everybody who is in front of me."

Kyle Lowry: I would've chosen Lowry over DeRozan as the Raptors' lone representative at the All Star Game in New Orleans. Head to head, DeRozan has a slight scoring edge, but Lowry rebounds and assists better, and has been slightly more consistent. It's close, but I think DeRozan's injury and Lowry's play in his absence sealed the deal for me. The Raptors have been the surprise team of the East thanks to both these players, standing atop the Atlantic Division. I think both of them and Lance Stephenson could have been picked over the last Eastern guard spot, which shockingly went to Joe Johnson.

Jeff Teague: With the Hawks hanging on to the third spot in the East despite Al Horford's absence, it could be argued that the team should've been rewarded with a second All Star besides Paul Millsap. Besides John Wall, Teague has been the best point guard in the East and is averaging career-highs across the board, including points (16.9) and assists (8).

*The East is too awful for me to give any another considerations, so Aaron Afflalo, Al Jefferson, have to deal with being the snubbed snubs.

Yao Ming’s ‘Team America’ vs Team China: Random notes from a (very) random night of basketball in Beijing

I wrote this feature for SLAM Online, and it was originally published on their website on July 2, 2013.

The starting five checked out of the game at halftime, were each member was patted on the back by Coach Yao Ming and Assistant Coach Tracy McGrady as they headed to the bench. Joakim Noah, Metta World Peace, Luis Scola, George Hill and Kyle Lowry—the not-entirely-American starting five of the team erroneously named “Team America All Stars”—were then replaced for the third quarter by a bunch of elementary school kids. On the other side, the Chinese National team were replaced by their mini-mes, too. On the “American” bench, John Wall and Ricky Rubio watched while McGrady enthusiastically coached the 10-year-olds. Metta joined in to give a pep-talk, too. All this was happening while Chinese cheerleaders dressed like one of the Mario Brothers danced in the middle of the floor and the crowd of several thousand chanted McGrady’s name like he had just been named Finals MVP.

Wait, wait, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Sorry. That’s what happens when you’ve just witnessed the zaniest exhibition game on this side of the globe (or any side of the globe, for that matter) to kick off the NBA offseason. On July 1, the Yao Ming Foundation organized its third charity game between the Chinese National Basketball Team and a group of Yao’s super-friends (from his time at Houston, mostly) playing under the Team America moniker against Team China, featuring the host country’s finest players. With little expectations, I set out to witness this event at the MasterCard stadium in Beijing, the same stadium that hosted the 2008 Olympics gold medal game.

First, let’s do a roll call shall we? The following were present at the game, either participating in the game or watching from the sidelines: Yao Ming, Tracy Mcgrady, Joakim Noah, Metta World Peace, Luis Scola, George Hill, Kyle Lowry, Ricky Rubio, Chris Singleton, John Wall, Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, Chinese players Yi Jianlian, Wang Zhelin, Sun Yue, Liu Wei, Wang Zhi Zhi and super-famous Brazil and Real Madrid soccer/futbol player Kaka. Yes, that Kaka.

(Bonus: Here’s a hilarious picture of Kaka with Yao and Wang Zhi Zhi from the day of the event.)

Yao has held this event twice in the past six years, with Steve Nash and Baron Davis amongst those to have starred in it in the past. But as far as I know, this year was the “biggest” show. It had everything. Drama (Joakim Noah’s clutch defense), excitement (Noah on the offensive end, Tracy McGrady coaching) and World Peace (Metta). And all this for a good cause, to support the primary school in China that’s funded by Yao’s foundation and his other charitable efforts for children in poverty-stricken areas in China.

Here are some of my notes from the game:

- Metta was working on his jump-shot a lot pre-game, and it was looking like the opposite of pretty.

- Chinese fans really, really love Tracy McGrady. This goes back to T-Mac’s time with Yao in Houston, and of course, McGrady’s stint playing in China last season. I was thoroughly impressed by the variety of McGrady jerseys in attendance, with fans donning his jerseys from Toronto, Orlando, Houston, New York and Detroit. No one seemed to commemorate his time with the Spurs, though. Fans chanted his name throughout and cheered for him louder than anyone else. When Team America took the floor, Metta was announced first and McGrady last.

- Those were the same fans wh would soon be very disappointed to discover that McGrady wouldn’t be suiting up and instead would be Yao’s assistant coach.

- Kaka—who played no part in Brazil’s Confederation Cup victory the same morning—gets asked to speak to fans before the game.

- Yao is the biggest human being I’ve ever seen.

- (Speaking of Yao, this all took place the same day he skyped with Dwight Howard and pitched him to join the Houston Rockets)

- While Yao had gotten Metta, Noah, George Hill etc. to volunteer to play in the game, the surprise attendees were four point guards: John Wall, Ricky Rubio, Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday, who just so happened to be in Beijing at the same time for an adidas promotional event. Wall, Lillard and Holiday watched from the Team America sidelines in street clothes, but Rubio couldn’t resist and changed into gear to check into the game minutes in the first quarter.

- The Yao-and-McGrady coached Team America fielded Noah, World Peace, Scola, Hill and Lowry as its starting five.

- Team America’s first shot was a Metta three and a Metta miss.

- Despite spending a season in China, McGrady feigned ignorance to the existence of Wang Zhelin, one of the brightest young Chinese prospects and possible draft pick next year. Wang had a pretty dominant start to the game for Team China. Wang, 19 (supposedly), is a talented, mobile 7-footer, and was definitely the center-piece for China’s team. We hope T-Mac knows him now.

- Joakim Noah doesn’t have an off switch, and he decides to play playoff defense from the get-go. He is aggressive and emotional on the other end, too, dunking emphatically, taking ill-advised long twos, and on one occasion, playing the role of a point guard while trying to beat his man off the dribble. Good times.

- Watching Yi play in this game (and for his CBA team Guangdong in the past), it’s clear that being in China raises his confidence to another level; he plays with the swagger of a superstar. He takes a far more aggressive role in the offense. It didn’t amount to much in this game, but at least he was trying.

- In two consecutive possessions in the second quarter, Metta attempts to inbound the ball from his own end with a heave pass to the running Chris Singleton all the way on the other end of the floor. Two turnovers.

- Luis Scola’s under-the-radar career went a little further under when he joined the Suns, but the big Argentinian definitely still has some of the prettiest back-to-the-basket post moves.

- Rubio checks in to the surprise and delight of the fans. He looked a little rusty throughout the game, but was aiming to please.

- Rubio and Metta on the same team is my dream come true.

- The crowd breaks into “Mai Di” chants (that’s McGrady’s Chinese name) on numerous occasions, urging him to play. But it’s to no avail.

- The game itself is a pretty even, low-scoring affair, with the American side not taking things too seriously yet (except for Noah) and the Chinese side looking quite rusty.

- After halftime, quite inexplicably, the two participating teams get replaced by two teams of Chinese primary school-kids (presumably from Yao’s foundation school) wearing the same jerseys as the actual teams that now sat on the bench. For the next 10 minutes, the kids play a full-court game on a lowered rim and with a smaller ball. This surprisingly turns out to be a more entertaining affair than the “big-boys” game, as the kids ran helter-skelter end to end and each basket was greeted by rousing applause. McGrady was promoted to Head Coach for the kids, and took this brief job as primary tactician very seriously, mock-arguing with the refs on the sidelines, stepping out on the court animatedly and shouting tactics to his young players during the timeouts. As a matter of fact, this was the most animated I had ever seen McGrady.

- I initially assume that the game is just an extended half-time show, but my Chinese friend clarifies that the kids have just played the third quarter of the game, and the accumulated scores will count when the real teams return for the fourth quarter.

- By the time the fourth quarter does begin, Team America and Team China hit the floor again with China leading 42-40. Team America stops messing around and perks up on the defensive end. Noah is a monster, commanding the post to shut down all comers. The result is two-fold: the “Americans” begin to get a lot of fast-break opportunities that lead to breathtaking dunks and the Chinese players then retaliate by shifting into higher gear, too. Suddenly, we have a game!

- America’s crunch-time lineup is the starting five again: Noah, Scola, World Peace, Lowry and Hill.

- Noah continues his dominance on both ends of the floor, blocking several shots and scoring on numerous occasions. He ultimately ends up being the difference as Team America pulls through for a 61-58 victory.

- Hugs, cheers and applause for Yao.

And, that wraps it up. Watching basketball in China is always an awesome, if surreal, experience, which includes ingenious chants from the fans, a conglomerate of different and sometimes random NBA jerseys (I saw a guy in a Celtics Larry Bird uni a few rows in front of me), inappropriate arena music, a lot of laughs from the crowd, awful, sweet popcorn (this one is a personal pet-peeve) and awkwardly gyrating cheerleaders.

Mix those ingredients with an invasion of random NBA players, and the end result was a pretty memorable night of basketball. Thanks for the fun times, Yao.