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“I don’t like it at all. We work just as hard as anybody else. I don’t think it’s fair to take away a position that’s been here for life. You need a center on the court. So I don’t think it’s right. That’s like taking away a guard.”- Dwight Howard said of the clubbing together of the center position in the all star game with frontcourt players.
This year, the league eliminated the center position from the all star game and changed the starter group to three front court players and two guards. Small ball is the order of the day with teams moving towards a faster paced game with players who do multiple things and aren’t pigeonholed into specific positions like point guard, shooting guard or center.
Back then at the start of this season, Dwight Howard had averaged 18.4 points, 12.9 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game for his career, while shooting 57.8. He doesn’t really need to worry about not getting into the all star game.
“It makes sense,” NBA VP of Basketball Operations Stu Jackson said. “It made sense to our Competition Committee. Having a center is the only specific position that was singled out on the ballot. It just seemed a little outdated and didn’t represent the way our game has evolved. By the same token, it also affords the same opportunity, if you have two good centers in a given year, pick ‘em both. They both can be selected. Which is impossible right now.”
On the flip side, removal of the center removes the perception that a team needs one and can’t get by on a power forward playing center. One way in which removal of the center position in basketball in general can help is that it doesn’t limit one to putting their best five on the floor. Look at the Celtics moving Kevin Garnett to center and Brandon Bass to power forward. They did away with the traditional center and it worked for them. The Miami Heat have also slid Chris Bosh to center. The game as a whole is slowly moving towards a position-less game, with point guards scoring, shooting guards who are in only for their defense, big men who shoot threes; slowly, fixed positions are getting obsolete and the center is the first one to go.
Even though Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh have been playing center for their teams, its been with power forward styles. That lends credence to the theory that the center position is evolving and getting out of the door. “Our players have become more versatile each season,” Stu Jackson said, “and this ballot will more accurately reflect that versatility.”
“It doesn’t surprise me.” Kevin Garnett said of his teammate Jared Sullinger not being in the Rising Stars Challenge. “This league has, I guess, an agenda in what they want. And Jared [Sullinger]’s not in that agenda. I hope it creates a monster within him. I hope it does everything [to] encourage him.”- Sullinger averaged 7.0 points and 7.2 rebounds in 23.2 minutes during the month of January. But he isn’t a flashy player by any means. He gets down and dirty in the post and does the grunt work which enables the perimeter players to thrive. But he wasn’t among the players in the BBVA Rising Stars challenge.
One way to look at the importance of the center is to compare it to a car show. Everyone drools over the best cars but few crouch and stare at the tires which do the dirty ground work to keep the machine rolling. A tire is just as much a vital component of the car as the rest of it. Kevin Garnett had a point about an agenda, but he was referring to the league preferring the flashier small ball. When it comes to the all star game, the coaches do have some amount of power to make a statement and they have made two statements this time.
“(The Nets) just picked up the intensity level,” LeBron James said. “You can tell that they like to play for P.J. It sucks that Avery (Johnson) had to take the hit of them not wanting to play at a high level.”
The all star weekend is not all fun and festivities devoid of the intricacies and nuances which go with a regular NBA game. This all star game, the coaches across the league seem to be making two statements. One was the supposed freezing out of the Brooklyn Nets‘ potential all star players by not naming any of them among the reserves in the all star team. The coaches seemingly took offense at the Nets freezing out Avery Johnson and quitting on him as was the perception. Coaches stick together and this was seen as ‘sticking it to the Nets’.
“I think all three of our guys should be on, but it doesn’t matter what I think,” Carlesimo said. “I couldn’t vote for them. They’ve made a strong case, both how they’ve played individually and I think the fact that our team has played well also argues on their behalf.”- said Nets coach PJ Carlesimo.
Nets were the only one of the 10 NBA teams with a winning percentage of over .600 this season to have no All-Stars. Brook Lopez is averaging 18.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in just under 30 minutes per game. With Rajon Rondo’s season ending injury, his replacement in the all star game was selected by David Stern, and it was Brook Lopez.
“Those coaches, they’re mad because Deron Williams got the coach fired, so they were hating on the Nets.” Charles Barkley said, who felt Lopez should have made the team. “Coaches stick up for each other.”
The other statement was the coaches showing how much they appreciate the centers. The starters for the all star game were voted for by the fans and the substitutes by the coaches. The coaches voted in six players who play center style, signifying that the contribution made by the centers is well appreciated by them. Joakim Noah, Tyson Chandler, Tim Duncan, LaMarcus Aldridge, David Lee and Zach Randolph have been voted in as reserves.
Tyson Chandler said- “Maybe those are the positions they want to see (referring to forwards and guards). Those are the skilled positions that are exciting and it’s almost like a pickup game. There are only a few true centers in the league.” He’s right in saying that the skilled positions are exciting to watch. Guys like Brad Miller, Chris Kaman, Mehmet Okur and Ben Wallace probably wouldn’t have been in the all star game without the center position. But they are vital cogs on their team and are appreciated by the coaches just as much as the high scoring guards are. The all star game promises to be an exciting affair this time around, smaller and faster. Hopefully it won’t lead the way to extinction of the classic bruising centers of yesteryear .
