No one ever said this was a perfect system.

The NBA announced the starters for Februrary 14^th’s All-Star Game in Dallas, and there was one choice that overshadowed all of the rest. Sixers G Allen Iverson was one of the 10 players chosen to represent the NBA, despite the fact that he has anything but an all-star type first half of the season.

But we’ll get to Iverson later. Let’s focus on the guys that deserved it more, at the least.

The rest of the East is full of some regulars. Heat G Dwyane Wade is the only East guard deserving the start. Cavaliers G/F LeBron James was the leading vote-getter of all of the NBA. Magic C Dwight Howard will bring his cape to the court. The last starter is Celtics F Kevin Garnett – more to come on him too.

The West avoided another disastrous vote with Suns G Steve Nash passing Rockets G Tracy McGrady in the final week to take the starting job. The other guard is Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant. Nash’s teammate Amare Stoudemire will start at center. Nuggets F Carmelo Anthony will start at forward along with Spurs F Tim Duncan – to the dismay of Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, who was passed in the last week.

Thank goodness McGrady didn’t start too after playing in only six games while being injured and pushing for a trade this year. That would have been even worse than picking Iverson.

Oye, and here we are at Iverson again. He’s had quite a busy first half of the season; unfortunately, that doesn’t quite lead to deserving spot on the all-star team. He went from playing for the Grizzlies in the West (mostly injured) to asking for his release and retiring. Then he comes back from ‘retirement’ to play for his old team in Philadelphia. Oh, and I found out today that those votes he got back in Memphis count towards his Eastern Conference votes… why?

If you’re A.I., what do you do? If you play, people say you haven’t deserved it. If you don’t play, then you have ‘let down the fans’ who voted him in. He’s in a HRBL position for sure.

As for Garnett, he has to be the second worst pick of all these guys due to his lack of playing this season. He hasn’t even played in the last 10 games this year (Nene is better than him anyway; too bad he’s not in the East).

Other than those guys, I do feel that Dirk Nowitzki should start in the West, but it’s hard to go against any of those studs.

So that’s my take on the voting. The fans got 7-8 of them right, but the rest are very debatable. The reserves will be announced later, and you’ll hear more on that topic in next week’s podcast.

-Shooter