fredrickson@learn.DEC (11/07/85)
It seems a bit early to be voting for NBA All-Stars, but I'll give it a go. I can't very well base my selections on '85-86 performances, so my choices are the guys I'd put on the floor to win the '86 title. May I suggest that voters who post their responses reveal their predispositions? (I am a Celtics fan.) Eastern Conference Center -- Malone. The Parish/Walton tandem will give Boston an overall 48-minute edge in the pivot against any opponent this year, but Malone is still the most dominant individual force. He is the best there is in two areas: offensive rebounding and drawing fouls. I always liked Ruland until I saw his pony tail. Forward -- Bird and Terry Cummings. Larry has more impact on a game than any non-center who ever played (sorry, Elgin). If healthy, Bernard King would have a spot. Cummings would complement Bird nicely. Oh, and give me Kevin McHale and Charlie Barkley off the bench, please. Guards -- Cheeks and Moncrief. It seems amazing to leave Isiah and Michael Jordan out, but we're talking about winning, not crowd-pleasing. Mo and Sidney are two of the game's quiet superstars. Never mind the stats, there is no better two-way point guard than Cheeks, who can absolutely do everything there is to do on a court. Dennis Johnson fits in somewhere for defense, clutch offense and sheer smarts. Western Conference Center -- Kareem. Any Boston fan who doesn't finally appreciate the greatness of the big fella must have been out of the country last June. Olajuwan isn't all the way there yet, Sikma is a little past it, so Mark Eaton will make a nice back-up on this defense- lacking unit. Forwards -- Worthy and Sampson. I'd like to get some defense into this lineup, but it's hard to resist pairing these two. Alex English and Otis Thorpe off the bench. Guards -- Magic and Walter Davis. The latter, if healthy, is the consummate shooting guard. Otherwise, I like Rolando Blackman. Two things about the West: The Lakers would probably beat an all- star team comprised of the best of the rest, and there doesn't seem to be an abundance of great defensive players around who can also score points, ala Moncrief, Cheeks, Paul Pressey, etc. Also, an aside to the contributor who recently gave his assessment of Danny Ainge as (paraphrasing) "a player who would be average or below on another team." This, my friend, is the ultimate compliment to a Celtic. When Ainge came out of BYU and opted for baseball, he would have been the fourth or fifth player taken in the NBA draft. Had he gone to a non-contender, he would probably be an all-star. With Boston, he spent the better part of two years on the bench, and that inactivity slowed his growth as a player. He can shoot, pass, play both point and big guard, runs the break and is extraordinarily quick for a caucasian. Like so many Celtics (15 championships and never, in 40 years, has a Celtic won a scoring title), what he lacks is flashiness or "star quality." Bird, of course, is the exception, but if you watch him play, you get the feeling he is a supertstar almost by accident. He plays like he's still trying to make the varsity. You can have all the Darrell Griffiths, Marques Johnsons, Bob McAdoos and Kiki Vandeweghes you'd like. I'll take the guys who don't even look at the stat sheet after the game. All they need to know is what's up on the scoreboard. Now that that's off my chest, I can get back to counting the days until Celtics-Lakers III (modern era).