All Star game view...

PARIS (The Monday International Show) - I'm just back from doing the French "weekend of aces" tournament in the basketball-loving town of Nancy.

The surprising team from the small town of Roanne(pop. 35000), playing a Suns style of run and gun, beat Euroleaguer, Le Mans, in the exciting final.

It's easy to predict that the American stars from these two teams and maybe even their excellent coaches (Vincent Collet and Jean Denys Choulet) will be offered big contracts by Euroleague teams next season.

Incredibly, Roanne's inexpensive American trio of Deewarick Spencer, Brian Salyers and Aaron Harper are the three top scorers in the French Pro A league! I've never seen that happen before and Roanne is leading the league only having the 14th ranked budget! The Le Man's duo of Kenny Gregory and Eric Campbell will interest elite teams like Vitoria or Tel-Aviv.

After doing seven game commentaries in a 72 hour period in Nancy, I'm off to Vegas (for the first time) to cover the NBA All-star game.

This will be another television marathon because we'll be showing all the weekend's events-some live and some on tape-during a six hour broadcast late sunday night.

With Boris Diaw at our side, we'll be following each step of Tony Parker(and Eva), as he tries to repeat in the "shooting stars" event ,and, more importantly, play better than last year in the big game! Since he won't be stressed and tired out trying to launch his career as a rapper this time, he'll probably have more energy on the court.

He owes his spot on the team to the West coaches who considered his consistent play, high percentages and, foremost, his two titles more worthy than the flamboyant stats of players like Ray Allen or Carmelo Anthony.

No grievous injustices have occured since David Stern has added Melo and Josh Howard to replace Yao and Boozer who are both injured.

By not choosing Anthony, the West coaches sent a strong message to the players fighting and hurting the good image of the NBA is gonna cost you! Of course some small injustices concerning the starters voted by the fans can be noted; Dwight Howard deserved to start ahead of Shaq , Nowitzki ahead of Duncan and Nash ahead of T-Mac.

Scoring big stats on weak teams is definitely out of fashion, just ask Joe Johnson, Michael Redd, Ray Allen or Baron Davis! Oddy enough it would probably be easier to find two worthy teams in the West before finding one in the east!

The only international player on the East squad is Gilbert Arenas who is from outer space!

The dunk contest is in a poor state but at least they have reduced the time allowed to make a dunk in order to avoid a repeat of the sad spectacle of Nate Robinson failing seventeen times in a row... before eventually WINNING the trophy!

Some of the best dunkers-Lebron, Kobe and Wade are paradoxically to be found in the "skills challenge".

The "three-point shootout" should once again be the best contest with Dirk favored to repeat with his impeccable shooting mechanics and high arc!

The West team will be alot more international and the return of the Nash-Nowitzki connection makes them my favorites to win.

Of course, the only sure bet for the weekend is that I will be the journalist who loses the least gambling, but I'll come back to Paris with my pockets and mind full of exciting showtime b-ball memories after commentating my 16th NBA All star game in a row!

George Eddy