Kleeman's Last Word

J Howard Snubbed, Kobe's Suspension and the flailing Spurs

With so much to write about in the league these days, I figured I would take the three most pertinent issues this week and collapse them into one long post.

JOSH HOWARD SNUBBED

If David Stern expects me to watch the 2007 NBA All Star Game in Las Vegas, Josh Howard had better be there.
Stern has the opportunity to make this happen after coaches snubbed the Mavericks' forward in voting for the Western Conference reserves.
The way things are currently scripted, Phoenix will have 3 players at the game, Houston 2, San Antonio 2 and below .500 New Jersey will also have 2. As for the Dallas Mavericks, the NBA's top team, which has proven thus far to be better than all of the aforementioned teams, they will have one. Namely, Dirk Nowitzki, the same no-brainer choice that will be made by coaches or fans until the German 7-footer retires.
The All Star Game may amount to nothing more than a culmination of two days of boastful showboating that has nothing to do with who will win the championship, but it does send a message.
An All Star selection validates that a player is continually reaching for that next level and achieving it. Howard has done more this season than the word "improvement" could ever encapsulate and yet, he's received no validation. He's dropping 19 points a game, grabbing almost 8 rebounds a game, he's changing shots, draining 3's and averages more points in the first quarter than any other player in the league. He could be the best player on the best team in the NBA. And no all-star selection?
What were these coaches thinking?

HERE IS THE WESTERN CONFERENCE LINEUP:

5 Carlos Boozer (Utah) F-C 6-9 266 11/20/1981 Duke
24 *Kobe Bryant (L.A. Lakers) G 6-6 220 08/23/78 Lower Merion HS
21 *Tim Duncan (San Antonio) F 7-0 260 04/25/76 Wake Forest
21 *Kevin Garnett (Minnesota) F 6-11 220 05/19/76 Farragut Academy (HS)
3 Allen Iverson (Denver) G 6-0 165 07/07/1975 Georgetown
31 Shawn Marion (Phoenix) F 6-7 228 05/07/1978 UNLV
1 *Tracy McGrady (Houston) G 6-8 210 05/24/79 Mt. Zion Academy (HS)
13 Steve Nash (Phoenix) G 6-3 195 02/07/1974 Santa Clara
41 Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas) F 7-0 245 06/19/1978 Germany
9 Tony Parker (San Antonio) G 6-2 180 05/17/1982 France
1 Amare Stoudemire (Phoenix) C 6-10 245 11/16/1982 Cypress Creek (Orlando, FL)
11 *Yao Ming (Houston) C 7-6 310 09/12/80 China

The additions of Nowitzki and Nash are no-brainers, considering they lead all MVP candidates by a wide margin. Tony Parker is having a career best season and certainly a gigantic portion of any success the San Antonio Spurs have enjoyed belongs to the French point guard. Allen Iverson is still the same shotjacker, but he kept the Nuggets afloat, albeit barely afloat, while Carmelo Anthony served his 15-game suspension. Amare Stoudemire, whose return from injury has been a major catalyst to the Suns success, is also a worthy reserve choice.
That leaves small forward Shawn Marion, who has to be the one that beat out Howard in coach voting.
Marion is having another nice season, but the adjective I used to describe his play is just that. Nice.
Marion is putting up his same standard numbers that you would expect from him. He certainly isn't the best player on the Suns. He hasn't hit any game winning shots. He doesn't score as many 12 points in the first quarter.
Howard has done all of that this season, multiple times. He's gone from being the overlooked 28th pick in the crowded, talent-dense 2003 Draft Class to the lanky forward that anchors an astonishing Maverick team.
Every coach dreads facing Howard and maybe that's why he was omitted from the reserves list.
Yao Ming and Carlos Boozer will miss the game due to injuries, so Stern must select two deserving Western Conference players as replacements.
If Howard is not among those choices, this NBA aficionado will be watching something else on All Star Weekend.

KOBE'S SUSPENSION
Stu Jackson, a man whose authority I respect, has missteppen again. The league's vice president of operations handed out yet another undeserved suspension to Lakers' guard Kobe Bryant for an unintentional hard foul on the Spurs' Manu Ginobili.
Bowen had originally been defending Bryant on the play, but Ginobili entered the picture when Bowen fell for Bryant's pump fake. Ginobili threw his arm up to alter the potential game changing shot, as he so often does.
It is clear from the replay that Bryant had no idea it was Ginobili challenging him on the play. The moment he saw the Argentenian guard had fallen, he made sure he was alright. No malice was intended by this foul and it happened in the course of a standard defensive play in the final minutes of a crucial Western Conference dual.
Several Spurs players, including Ginobili and Bowen and head coach Greg Poppovich have said the suspension was unwarranted.
Here's to hoping a similar hard foul by Lebron James on Dwyane Wade does not draw undeserving criticism and an umerited suspension. James and Wade are close friends and both have acknowledged the rough foul happened naturally within a key moment of Friday's down to the wire matchup.

The league also blundered in last season's Finals when it suspended Jerry Stackhouse for a hard foul on Shaquille O' Neal. The smart-alec O' Neal joked that the "foul felt really good." If the player victimized by the foul isn't complaining, why take disciplinary action?

The suspensions against the players involved in the Neanderthal brawl at Madison Square Garden earlier in the season weren't harsh enough. Carmelo Anthony said he learned through the suspension how much he loved basketball. He said nothing about regret for nearly causing another Rudy Tomjanovich against another player's face. He didn't express remorse or a desire to clean up his act. He punched players and referees violently for a play he had nothing to do with and yet no formal apology has been issued. For a player hoping to represent the best of professional basketball at the All Star Game, this is of concern.

The league did levy the right punishment against the Mavs' Jason Terry when he desperately punched Spurs' guard Michael Finley at the end of regulation in Game 5 of the Mavs-Spurs semifinals series.

STRUGGLING SPURS
"We need wins," Manu Ginobili told David Aldridge at halftime in last night's Phoenix/San-Antonio. "They've been hard to come by lately and we want to get back to winning."
The spurs led by three at halftime against the league's best offense. They wound up losing by more than 15 points.
The Spurs head back to San Antonio 1-2 on their 8 game, annual "Rodeo Road Trip." January was not a kind month for Tim Duncan's bunch. They had better start some lengthy streaks if they hope to keep their playoff spot and make a title run.
Contrary to what Doug Collins said last night, the Spurs needed to win that game last night, not the Suns.
THE SPURS NEEDED TO WIN THAT GAME. THE SPURS NEEDED TO WIN THAT GAME. THE SPURS NEEDED TO WIN THAT GAME.
AND THEY DIDN'T.

posted by Robert Kleeman @ 1:48 PM