I’m the type of sports fan who looks at individual accolades and honors with a grain of salt or two. MVP awards, All (name the sport) First Team, Defensive Player of the Year, and the list goes on. One of the big reasons I don’t put too much stock in these awards is because often times the choices fly in the face of logic, reason, and statistics. Even when the awards are voted on by the “experts” of the major sports, bias creeps in and at times tarnishes the award. If the NBA MVP really represents the most valuable player or his team that year, how has Shaquille O’Neal, one of the most dominating athletes in all of sports, won the award just once? How did Miguel Cabrera land a first place vote for AL MVP this year when he clearly wasn’t even close to Mauer or the other candidates ahead of him? I’d like to say that the awards are given to the deserving candidate more often than not, but I’m not so sure that is the case.
I’m the type of sports fan who, outside of the pure entertainment purposes of the game, cares as much about any All Star game as I do a regular season WNBA game. I’m not saying that the experts get it right all the time (see: Miguel Cabrera’s one first place vote for the 2009 AL MVP), but if fan voting is involved, count me out.
There will always be guys who make the All Star team year in and out and are much deserving of the spot. On the flip side, there will be Yao Ming who could be voted in as a starter as a water boy. In fact, for the 2010 NBA All Star game, Tracy McGrady who has yet to play a single minute this NBA season but is still on the ballot, is currently in second place in total votes for Western Conference guards (thanks, China. To see what I mean, check out this link and this link).
After talking with a friend about the sham that the NBA All Star game has become, I said that I could assemble a roster of guys who have never been an All Star that could be an instant championship contender. After I started looking into the list of players who haven’t made an ASG, I was amazed at the level of talent out there. It was almost too easy to make this list so I made a few extra rules for myself when putting this team together and they are as follows:
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