In case you missed it, Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett have been passed on the All Star voting by Derrick Rose and Amare Stoudamire. I'll pause while you go stuff the ballot box with shamrocks.
On one hand, I get why this happened. Rondo missed 11 games and Garnett has missed 8 (and counting). So in a popularity contest it is "out of sight, out of mind." Nobody is going to argue that Stoudamire has had a better career than Garnett but he may be having a better first half of the year. So I'm not too broken up about that. Besides, I'm happy to let Garnett take some extra days off in February if he isn't added to the team anyway.
What gets me a little worked up is the Rose over Rondo voting. In fact, Matt from Blog-a-Bull and I had a fun little back and forth over twitter on who is better and more deserving of the All Star nod.
Matt's case is that Rose has done what he does on a team with much less talent and requires him to score more. He argues that if Rose was traded for Rondo then the Celtics would be better and Rose would fit right in to his role. He also trots out the same old "Rondo can't shoot" knock on his game and rightly points out his free throw shooting as a liability.
I counter with the fact that Rose scores more because he has to be a volume shooter on an otherwise mostly sub-par team and that Rondo is a better defender (though it seems Rose is making strides). I would absolutely not take Rose for Rondo because I feel like pure point guards with this talent only come around once every few years (Nash, Kidd, etc.) while scoring combo guards are a dime a dozen (though again, Rose is one of the better ones).
But at the end of the day I have to admit that I'm probably a little bit biased. I really do thing that Rondo is the perfect fit for this team and I'm perfectly content building the post-Big 3 era around him. But I do have a ton of respect for Derrick Rose and have to give him a respectful nod as being a deserving All Star.
Still, selfishly, I want Rondo to start. So rock the vote people!
For those following along at home, here's the current tally (the top 2 guards will start).
Green Street " Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett passed in latest All-Star voting
Guards: Dwyane Wade (Mia) 1,499,768; Derrick Rose (Chi) 1,225,575; Rajon Rondo (Bos) 1,171,311; Ray Allen (Bos) 630,588; John Wall (Was) 260,893
In case you missed the other two links in this article: Vote here!