all-star strategy

Just read an interesting article in the Sporting News about several players in the eastern conference of the NBA trying to get listed as forwards so that they have a better shot at being voted to the All-Star team.

In fairness, these players are not true centers to begin with. Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal is not a 7-foot, low post, rebounder - he's a 6-11, shot blocking, open floor player. He is officially listed as a "Forward/Center", as many players such as Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett are. But the way Indiana plays, he is clearly the closest thing to a center. It certainly isn't 6-9 who averaged 6 rebounds and 0.3 blocks per game last year. Yet O'Neal wants to be listed at forward on the All-Star ballot so that he isn't up against Shaq and Ben Wallace. He wants to go to Vegas.

By the way, I still think this is why Dikembe Mutombo left the Denver Nuggets and other teams in the west to go to the pitiful Atlanta Hawks years ago. There were no big centers in the league at the time and he was elected to several All-Star games as a center, thanks to not going up against David Robinson and Shaq at the time. Now he realizes he's old and still wants to play and Houston needs a veteran center to help teach Yao Ming how to play a phyiscal game, so he's back in the west.