The NBA All-Star game is here, and along with it comes all the excitement of the best players in the league suiting up for the most fancy exhibition game of its kind.  The NBA All-Star weekend is a great time for fans to see their favorite players compete in different events.  Two of the most popular are the Slam Dunk Contest and the 3-point shooting competition.  However, the real fun in New Orleans will start on Sunday at the All-Star Game.

The Boston Celtics have the best record in the league, and not surprisingly they are bringing two players to the game.  Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce will both suit up for the East, but surprisingly; the Celtics aren’t the only team with two All-Stars on it.  The Washington Wizards will be represented by Caron Butler, who is having a career best season, and Antawn Jamison, who seems to every night get a double-double without anyone noticing.  There is a very good chance that the Wizards could have been bringing three people to the All-Star game, but Gilbert Arenas went down early in the year with a knee injury.  All together, the starting line-up for the East side will be : Dwight Howard from the Orlando Magic, Jason Kidd from the New Jersey Nets, Dwayne Wade from the Miami Heat, LeBron James from the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Garnett.  Interestingly enough, with Jason Kidd on the trading block, the All-Star game could be the last game for Kidd in an Eastern Conference jersey. 

The rest of the Eastern Conference teams reads like this: Chauncy Billups from the Detroit Pistons, Chris Bosh of Toronto, Richard Hamilton of Detroit, and Joe Johnson from Atlanta.

With the Western Conference so competitive this year the All-Star team was tough to figure out.  Yao Ming for the Houston Rockets is having a good year, but he gets the benefit of all of China voting for him.  The other Western Conference starters are Carmelo Anthony of Denver, Kobe Bryant of the Lakers, Tim Duncan of the Spurs, and Allen Iverson also of Denver. 

Making up the rest of the squad is David West and Chris Paul of the hosting team New Orleans, Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash of the Suns, Carlos Boozer of Utah, Brandon Roy of Portland, and Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas.

While you are technically allowed to bet on these games, it’s always hard to imagine how they will turn out because of the nature of these games.  When the game first starts it usually looks like something you would see on the playground, but if the game is close as it winds down the competitive nature of the players starts to come out.  Both teams seem pretty even, with perhaps the West having an advantage with big men, and having the home court advantage.   

“Shaq” gets to go from a team that is 20 games under .500 to a team that has one of the best records in the league.  Not a bad way to put an end to your career.  Some people think the trade for O’Neal will actually hinder what the Suns are trying to do on offense.  The Suns are an up and down team that relies on getting out quick on the fastbreak.  Shaq has never been a fastbreak type of player.  What Phoenix is hoping for is that his presence in the middle will be enough to finally get them over that hump, and into the NBA finals.  Only time will tell if the trade will help or hurt the Suns, but it is unquestionably an excited move that help kick starts the wide open battle in the Western Conference.

Another one of those tough teams in the West are the Dallas Mavericks.  While the Mavericks have made an NBA Finals appearance in the last couple of years, they still feel like they need to get over the hump and win one.  Last year, as I’ve mentioned many times, they were eliminated in the first round, despite having the best record in the league.  The parity in the league is much higher this year, so much that the top ten teams in the West are all within about six games of each other.  It’s hard to say if all those teams are really good, as in better than anything the West has to offer, or are they all just really even.  The Mavericks are on the top half of those ten teams, and by accounts, they are pretty good.  It’s so hard to predict what the new look Suns will be like.  It’s my guess that it will take the team a handful of games to adjust to the big man in the center. 

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