The NBA all-star reserves are in!

If you’re not excited, you’re not paying attention!

The East: Chauncey, Rip, Chris Bosh, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce (the starters, if you’ve forgotten: KG, Dwight Howard, Jkidd, Wade, BronBron)

West coast: Chris Paul, David West, Brandon Roy, Carlos Boozer, Steve Nash, Amare, Dirk (starters: Melo, AI, Yao, Duncan, Kobe)

The teams I would have picked:

East: Kidd, KG, Howard, Pierce, Bron (reserves: Wade, Chauncey, Caron, Rasheed, Gerald Wallace, Josh Smith, Rip)—I just don’t think you can put Wade as a starter considering how banged up he is and how incredibly bad the Heat are. Also, Antawn? Joe Johnson? Totally one-dimensional players.

West: Nash, Duncan, Camby, Kobe, Roy (Boozer, Chris Paul, Marion, AI, Melo, Yao, Dirk)—I can’t believe Camby got left off this team. Yao has been balling recently, but Camby has been a total force. Baron Davis and DWilliams should be on the team somewhere, but the west is just so loaded with point guards. All four of those guys would start on the east team. Also, Roy is the best player on the most surprising team in the league.

In all, it’s just frustrating how stat-oriented the voting for this thing is. Every year it becomes, “Let’s pick the highest scorers in the league!” Scoring is important, but it’s hardly the sole indication of a good basketball player.

And I’m putting Sheed on. He can come up with a bogus injury to let Chris Bosh come in.

The finest actors of our generation

And they all live in Pittsburg. Via Mattias.

Let’s see how long this stays up….

Boy fakes cancer to meet Yzerman

Even I wouldn’t go this far to meet the Captain.

Wilbon had a heart attack

Seems to be okay.

More non-sports columnist posting will follow eventually.

Rest in peace

I don’t know if this story got attention nation-wide yesterday, but Bob Ryan of the Globe lost his son to an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was working in Pakistan.

If you know me you know I don’t do too well with celebrities, regardless of how famous they truly are. When I was a freshman in college I saw Bob Ryan on the subway and—as I am prone to do—I freaked out like he was all four Beatles in 1963.

Here’s the gist of the conversation:

Me: Oh my god, you’re Bob Ryan.
Bob Ryan: Yep, that’s me.
Me: Oh my god, you’re the best columnist and I’ve grown up watching you on The Sports Reporters on Sunday morning and you’re the best and I want to write about sports and you’re the best.
Bob Ryan: This is my stop, nice talking to you.

Anyway, Mr. Ryan must be in incredible pain right now. I hope the family is doing okay.

Promotion gone bad

Jerry: I’ve got to watch the NHL all-star game—a bunch of Red Wings are starting.
Courtney: If they’re starting, that means I can change the channel quicker right?

To start the game the people at Versus were interviewing the Islanders’ goalie, who happened to be playing at the moment. He was immediately scored upon by Rick Nash from the Ohio State Blue Jackets.

If there’s one thing that’s been proven by mid-game interviewing, it’s that no participant (aside from Lloyd Carr) is interesting while the game is being played. And it’s even worse when they’re literally on the ice.

Out of retirement

EDIT: This obviously isn’t sports-related. I posted it on the wrong blog.

Eliza has a good, long rant about feminism and the primary:

I want to puke when I look at the “Women’s Interest” magazine rack and realize that I’m only supposed to be ‘interested’ in shrinking my waist, shrinking my pores, and having a gala of ostentatious self-obsession wedding. After all this time, is that really how we think of ourselves? Do we really want pats on our heads so badly that we accept these as our ambitions, our options? And can we not see through the contrived Daddy Complex we’re bred into and feel secure with a qualified woman at the helm?

On a similar but not totally related note: Whatever your thoughts about Senator Clinton, she’s by far the most experienced candidate in the traditional terms (if you’re into that kind of thing.) I’m not inspired by the Democratic Party right now, and I think it’s crazy that a lot of left-leaning people are viewing the upcoming election as a giant rainbow of warm fuzzies. But the chance that either a woman or a black man is going to puncture the white male stranglehold on the top position in the country is very exciting.

Go read Eliza’s post—it’s smart and fierce and all the good things I remember about college.

Rip looked good

Not sure what to say about the Stones game, except that it’s lame when the one game you want to watch all week is a blowout from the jump. Orlando has no second gear, and they really need Jameer back.

I didn’t expect the Magic to be this good this year, but my main criticism of them from over the summer still stands up: they’re so constrained financially by that huge Rashard Lewis deal that they’re not going to be able to put enough pieces around Howard. It’s nice having a 6′10 shooting guard, but he doesn’t do enough to take you to the title.

In other news, Matt reminds me to post this:

By far the best Patriots column I’ve read

Of course it’s Klosterman. He’s too good. Via Joe.