Coaches Say ‘Melo to be an All-Star

(Boulder-CO) Before I get into all the reports of certain Western Conference coaches saying they will vote for ‘Melo to be an All-Star, let me say that tussles haven’t stopped previous NBA greats from being included in the All-Star weekend festivities of yesteryear. Greats like Kareem, Larry Bird, and Julius Erving have all been All-Stars despite mixing it up on the court. More current players like Shaq, Kobe, Tracy McGrady, and Charles Barkley were also still All-Stars despite their brouhahas a few years back. So why should Carmelo get treated any differently? The answer is he shouldn’t, and he will not, in my humble opinion.

Marc Spear of the Denver Post writes in today’s article, “From interviews done by The Denver Post, with help from reporters in other Western Conference markets, in addition to Dunleavy, the other pro-Anthony coaches include San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, Houston's Jeff Van Gundy, New Orleans-Oklahoma City's Byron Scott, Minnesota's Dwane Casey, Memphis' Tony Barone Sr., Utah's Jerry Sloan, Portland's Nate McMillan, Seattle's Bob Hill, Phoenix's Mike D'Antoni, Golden State's Don Nelson, Dallas' Avery Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers' Phil Jackson. Sacramento's Eric Musselman declined comment. Such support for the NBA's leading scorer could be instrumental in Anthony becoming a first-time all-star.”

And rightfully so, because Carmelo deserves to be an All-Star without a doubt. I am not sure if the league’s leading scorer has ever been left off an All-Star team, but it would be an overreaction if it were to be the case this year. Carmelo was snubbed last year where I felt that his numbers, and other factors, were overlooked and it would be another flat-out snubbing if he was left off again this year (check last February's archives for the snubb article).

Carmelo had this to say in the same aforementioned article in today’s Denver Post, “I thought I lost a lot of people out there, but I think everyone understands what I was doing before the suspension. Everybody who has played the game of basketball before knows how intense it is. I just want to say thank you to all the coaches for still having faith in me and not let the incident that happened in New York cause them to turn their heads on me.”

The fan voting determines who is an All-Star starter, but if, and when, Carmelo is an All-Star this February I don’t think I am going out too far on a limb when I say that I would expect him to be in during the fourth quarter when the game gets serious. It’s no secret that the first half is for the fans, but pride is for the players and when the game starts to get close to completion the teams respective coaches are going to play the players that give their team the best chance of winning the game. Carmelo is that kind of player and that makes me confident that in the waning minutes of this year’s mid-season classic he will most likely be one of the players that gets a touch if the game is close. Free Carmelo! Previous NBA stars have been pardoned for similar altercations so let’s not make him an example of a bad double standard.

The complete Denver Post article written by Marc Spears is available by clicking this link:
http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_5027411.

I leave you now with the http://www.youtube.com/ video evidence of some of the league’s brightest stars in some of their not so brightest moments. Notice the All-Stars, basketball fans and remember that they are humans capable of less-than perfect actions and should be granted the same forgiveness as anyone else.