All-Star choices

PARIS (The Monday International Show) - Today I would like to attempt to beat the media competition to the punch and be the first one give you the upcoming All-Star selections for the West and the East.

I feel that a simple formula mixing individual stats and team performance should give us a fair idea of who deserves to be chosen but you must also take into account career success for all-time great players like Tim Duncan or Big Shaq.

The natural evolution in the last twenty years for the coaches who choose the bench players has been to give more weight to team success which is logical because a coach's job is to win games as a team! It's also true that it's easier to put up big stats on a weak team that only plays offence because their are less quality players surrounding you to share the ball and stats with.

This tendancy might hurt brillant individuals ranked in the Top 6 in efficiency rating like Kevin Love or Blake Griffin in the west who, in my opinion, deserve to be selected despite poor team results even though the Clippers are playing better.

The problem is that there are so many high-performance forwards and guards in the western conference that some players with merit won't be chosen and Phil Jackson might be right in saying that the fairest method is to do "eeny-meeny-miney mo"! The best way to make space is to not choose ANY true center in the west and open up an extra spot for a power forward.

As usual, David Stern will repair the biggest injustice when he chooses Yao Ming's replacement after the west coaches have done their shopping.

The final result should look something like this,Chris Paul-Kobe Bryant at guard,Kevin Durant-Carmelo Anthony at forward and Pau Gasol as replacement center for Yao in the starting five chosen by the fans.

My only qualm with this is that the season-long Melo-drama in Denver has really hurt their team and I would rather see Dirk, Love or Griffin starting.

The west coaches will add Dirk Nowitzki,Love,Griffin, and one of the following list between Tim Duncan(fabulous career), Zach Randolph(9th in efficiency rating),Lamar Odom(for the reality-TV crowd!),Paul Milsap or LeMarcus Aldridge.

This leaves three or four spots for the west guards who are also plethoric in terms of deservedness.

Deron Williams who merited a starting spot as much as Paul is a sure-fire pick as well as Russell Westbrook.

Beyond them, it's difficult to know if Steve Nash(brilliant career)or 3rd leading NBA scorer Monta Ellis can pass in front of the Spur's tandem of Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker who are playing for the NBA's number one team.

Manu,San Antonio's leading scorer, seems the most likely pick out of the four.

On to the east where,once again, alot of forwards are deserving so I would only choose one true center,Dwight Howard, even though the Aussie center Andrew Bogut is playing well.

The fans' starters will be Derrick Rose-Dwayne Wade at guard,Amarè Stoudamire-LeBron James at forward and Howard at center.

Now that Rose and Stoudamire have passed Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett in the fan voting, I agree with their choices.

Those two Celtics will lead the coaches' bench selections accompanied by Paul Pierce,Boston's leading scorer.

Carlos Boozer and Chris Bosh will round out the forwards unless an Al Horford or Danny Granger can create an unlikely surprise.

There are less dominating guards in the east so I feel Raymond Felton, Joe Johnson or Ray Allen have a chance to squeeze in, with Felton the favorite thanks to the Knicks' resurgence this season.

In general, the east is all about Miami, Boston and Chicago and the west,once again, has a bigger international presence with alot of Spurs and Lakers in the mix.

So, plenty of great players will be on the court and a bumper harvest of super-celebs will be surrounding the hardwood to make for a memorable All-Star weekend in LA-LA land.

The last time the big show was in LA, I remember having to tap Gisele Bundchen and Leonardo DiCaprio on the shoulder in order to ask them to sit down so that I could see the court!

George EDDY