We don’t deserve him at his Bestbrook
On Thursday, the NBA announced the starters for the 2017 All-Star game, and for the most part, the selections are pretty defensible.
Thanks to a new provision in which fan voting only counts for 50 percent (the other 50 percent being split evenly between current players and a media panel), we were able to avoid a situation like Yao Ming starting after sitting out the whole season, or 2016 Kobe Bryant starting because he was playing like 2016 Kobe Bryant. And thank God the players and media curtailed the votes from the country of Georgia and stepped in to make sure the immortal Zaza Pachulia didn’t get the nod. How competitive could the game really have been if Zaza had been out there scoring 100 points and dunking from halfcourt?
Still, let’s take this time to remember that All-Star selections are the bastard cousins of All-NBA spots, since they are ultimately much more about popularity than actual performance. You would think that the MVP candidate averaging a triple-double and leading his undermanned team to a 25–19 record after losing its franchise player could crack the top two guards in his conference, but you would be wrong. Russell Westbrook apparently just doesn’t hit enough deep threes to displace Stephen Curry, who might just be having his weakest season in four years.
Go ahead, keep giving this guy more of a reason to have a chip on his shoulder. Maybe after he starts dropping 50–15–20 on a daily basis, he’ll finally get the respect he deserves outside Oklahoma.
Mo’ Munn-y, mo’ problems
The sports world is filled with phony scandals, mostly because no matter how macho and competitive you claim to be, everyone loves a little drama.
Sometimes the phony scandals get blown out of proportion and become issues on a national stage (something about a New England football team deflating some balls. Huh, I can’t remember. Must have been the Revolution), but most of the time they just take up space in the talking head shows before the next big game.
We’ve got a couple going on in the NFL right now, with Aaron Rodgers and his wife apparently being estranged from his family because he didn’t appear at a family dinner on the Bachelorette, and Mike Tomlin caught on Antonio Brown’s Facebook live stream calling the Patriots “a–holes.” Of these two, can we make a pact to care more about the former? Donald Trump just took office, if we want a vulgar live mic story we have one for the next four years.
2017 Aaron Rodgers is the most terrifying opposing quarterback I’ve ever seen and I need to know that he’s not perfect, that he can in fact fail at something. Get him on with Skip Bayless and let that old geezer go to town. Why doesn’t your family trust Olivia Munn? Is she a secret scientologist? Does she think that X-Men: Apocalypse was a quality film worthy of Oscar recognition? What are you hiding, Rodgers???
