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Brad Lee said:
And if the fans would have voted in Anothony, there wouldn't be a story. But the fans did not vote Anothony in, so it was up to the coaches, who chose to send a message to him. That message would mean a lot more if the commissioner backed it up.



Well, as I'm sure you know, the fans only decide the starters. If the entire roster was decided by the fans, Carmelo would have been voted in. He finished fourth in the voting among west forwards. So, the fans did want to see him in the All-Star game.

Either way, I think you're missing the point. It's an exhibition game. Preventing him from being in the event isn't penalizing him(unless he has some all-star appearance clause in his contract), or the team he represents. It's just penalizing the fans that want to see him play.

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Stern instituted a very tough interpretation of the technical foul, which many fans and players have called into question. Maybe I'm a little biased here being a Piston's fan and rooting for the Sheed and Rip, who lead the league in techs. That aside, I see a lot of them, and I see how they are handed out, and while I agree with maybe half them (Sheed can be an ass to the refs when he wants to the point that I can't argue against the tech), I feel that Stern is trying to send a message about how players should behave. The fact is, the techs are about sportsmanship, and yelling at the ref over every single call is not sportsman-like at all. Stern wants that out of the game.



But when Sheed and Rip get too many techs, they're suspended from regular season games.

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Maybe some have a different definition for what All-star behavior is, but I believe it includes being above the "punch and run" tactic that Anthony exemplified.

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This year, Anthony is not an All-star according to the coaches.



If you're trying to suggest that the fight was the main reason the coaches didn't vote him in, then I think you're giving them a bit too much credit. The Western Conference is packed with elite forwards. Carmelo didn't make it because he's just not better than Dirk Nowitizki, or Carlos Boozer, or Amare Stoudemire, etc.

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That said, I still think he's a hypocrite as divers like Wade are rewarded for faking fouls, instead of being punished like the NHL tries to do to its divers.



The NBA protects its stars, yes. So does the NFL. You've yet to make any sort of argument showing how that makes Stern a "hypocrite". He's always been that way...as were his predecessors. I bet if you looked pretty closely, you'd find the NHL is similar.

If not...well, I can't imagine why anyone would want to take a page from the NHL on running its league, anyway. No offense, but they're a joke.

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I still want to vomit every time I hear Wade being referred to as Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.



Look. I was physically present for every Mavericks finals home game. I've heard the "Wade flops" argument a million times, and its even come out of my mouth a good bit, too.

But Dwayne Wade is the best player in professional basketball right now. Period. I shouldn't have to cite stats he leads the world in like PER, player wins, etc. to prove it; just watch the games. The refs may help him out every now and then, but he still outplays every single guy on the court every single night, and I say that as someone who has every reason in the world to say otherwise.

MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.