Even from a comfortable chair in front of a widescreen TV set in North Carolina, I could see that there was talent on the floor at the United Center in Chicago for Reebok’s EA Sports Roundball Classic.
When the scoreboard ceased turning, three guys got on a plane with MVP trophies. Shaun Livingston, the nation’s only 6-6 high-major point guard, shared MVP honors for the West with New York guard A.J. Price. Livingston was his typical smooth self and had 12 points and 7 assists. Meanwhile, Price set the game record with 15 assists.
Over on the East ledger – which by the way lost the game 124-110 – UNC-bound winger J.R. Smith had 16 points to take home the hardware.
Most all-star games are morphing into mini-three day minicamps for eager NBA execs to gander over the best high school talent. While there are a handful – emphasis on handful – of guys who can reasonably make the leap to the pros, the rest of the kids are either fooling themselves or being fooled by others. Ndudi Ebi, Travis Outlaw and Kendrick Perkins have played a combined 77 minutes in the NBA this year. How’s that for a statistic?
Anyway, here are some random musings from a bad feed off a satellite TV broadcast by a guy who watched in a comfortable chair:
Marvin Williams did something I haven’t seen in a while. He hammered down a pair of dunks, one each over Dwight Howard and Josh Smith. The Smith dunk was a full out facial in which Josh tried to meet him at the rim and Marvin overpowered him which was impressive.
All-star games definitely aren’t Dwight Howard’s forte but you saw the lefty ½ hook and the double-double is what he does. The passing out of a double-team speaks to his hoops IQ.
Dorell Wright loves to work that baseline and his mid-range jumper is a weapon.
Glen Davis actually hugged three coaches at once during the introductions; that’s damn impressive.
This was my first viewing of Calvin Brock and there’s a lot to like there.
Joakim Noah will need to continue getting stronger for the college level.
Robert Swift, Mike Williams and Howard were the double-double guys.
LINESCORE
WEST – Noah 7, M. Williams 15, Swift 17, Afflalo 6, Livingston 12, Brock 7, M. Brown 19, Davis 17, Palacios 9, Price 8, Pruitt 7. T – 124.
EAST – Howard 16, Jo.Smith 15, Morris 11, JRSmith 16, JWright 5, Bright 9, Cerasoli 5, Simmons 4, MikeWilliams 12, DWright 17. T – 110.