Francis and Yao don't deserve to be an All Stars

This week Minnesota sports commentators have been blasting the choices of Steve Francis and Yao Ming as All Stars.

First during Friday's game between the T-Wolves and Lakers T-wolves commentor and former Rocket player Jim Peterson said.

and now this today from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

NBA Insider: Steve Francis shouldn't be on All-Star team
Steve Aschburner

Published February 1, 2004 HOOP01

Steve Francis is a pretty talented fellow and clearly a point guard the Houston Rockets hope to lean on for the next decade or more as they build toward an NBA championship. (Assuming he learns to throw the ball to Yao Ming twice as often as he does now.)

But the truth is, Francis probably was the least deserving of the 10 players picked by the fans in balloting for the All-Star Game Feb. 15 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Even Toronto's overrated Vince Carter, the No. 1 vote getter, was more legitimate.

At the time the winners of the league's vast popularity contest were announced, Francis was averaging career-lows in points (16.4) and scoring (5.9), while shooting a career-worst 38.9 percent. He also was averaging 3.7 turnovers, and in the three games immediately before the balloting cutoff, shot 8-of-37 as the Rockets went 1-2.

Some have wondered if Francis' vote total got a boost from his Shanghai teammate, considering the possible bloc of Internet voters in Yao's native China. Surely, they are familiar with their hero's Houston teammate and could have clicked on his name, too.

Francis didn't seem bothered by his less-than-meritorious starting slot, figuring it makes up for an All-Star snub in his second season.

"My second year, I thought I had one of my best seasons, and I didn't make [it]," Francis said. "It was in my hometown [Washington]. I was pretty upset."

Francis' presence in L.A. in two weeks does tighten up the competition for reserve spots, to be announced Tuesday. Conference coaches vote for seven players, five by position and two wild cards. Among guards, Sam Cassell, Gary Payton, Steve Nash, Manu Ginobili and Mike Bibby all can make cases for going, but a couple will be disappointed.

One other flaw in the NBA's marketing scheme is that all 10 selected starters are repeats from last year. That means a whole lot of trees and electricity were wasted just to get back to the same point as a year ago.

Here are NBA Insider's starting lineups and reserves, chosen as if we were in charge:

• West starters: G Sam Cassell, G Peja Stojakovic, F Kevin Garnett, F Tim Duncan, C Shaquille O'Neal.

• West reserves: G Steve Nash, G Kobe Bryant, F Andrei Kirilenko, F Dirk Nowitzki, C Yao Ming. Wild cards: F/C Brad Miller, F Carmelo Anthony.

• East starters: G Jason Kidd, G Tracy McGrady, F Ron Artest, F Vince Carter, C Jermaine O'Neal.

• East reserves: G Allen Iverson, G Baron Davis, F LeBron James, F Kenyon Martin, C Jamaal Magloire. Wild cards: G Michael Redd, G Paul Pierce.

Note Aschburner wouldn't even pick Francis as a reserve.

Also Aschburner puts a new spin on the Chinese internet voting by suggesting that Francis might've gotten in by Chinese voting for him along with Yao.

The saddest part of this is that even though I love the Rox I can't argue with him too much considering the Rox play this week.

 

Sorry about that Clutch.

The Startribune has a subscription based access so to spare non-Minnesotans (there really is no reason for anyone else to sign up since it isn't that good of a paper) from having to sign up to the Startribune.com I just copied the article. For space I didn't copy the whole article just the section that pertained to the All Star Game.

 

This wasn't from the NBA but from the Minneapolis newspaper. The Minnesota media tends to be very provincial regarding MN sports teams and I think they've been smarting over Garnett not getting the MVP the past few years.

 

Any Packer fan will agree with you that MN is full of crybabies.

I'm really torn here. I love the Rox and I love seeing them get recognition. It thrills me to no end seeing kids playing pick up ball down at the park wearing Francis and Yao jerseys. At the same time I've always resented players who overshadowed other players because of popularity and not necessarily skill. The prime example to me is someone like Anna Kournikova who while definately attractive really shouldn't be considered seriously as a professional tennis player. Or thinking back to the 1995 NBA Championship when from the amount of media attention and ads it seemed like it was Shaq and Penny who dominated Hakeem and Clyde than the other way around.

I guess its a matter of reputation vs accomplishment and Francis and Yao getting elected to the ASG seems to me more about reputation than what they have accomplished this season.