PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - Let me take a shot at beating my US colleagues to the punch by giving you my All-NBA First Team long before the official voting and announcement.

At point guard, the man that took the lowly and often laughable Los Angeles Clippers from the bottom to the top of the pack in one season, Chris Paul! He's 5'11" and provides whirlwind speed, amazing passing, clutch shooting and exemplary leadership both on and off the court. Big things sometimes come in small packages even in basketball.

Improving the Clips from a team winning only 39 percent to one winning 63 percent since his arrival is all you really need to know. His closest competition comes from his boyhood idol and good friend, Tony Parker, who has been anointed by Greg Popovich AND Tim Duncan as the incredible Spurs' best player and number one option this season.

France's playmaker has never played better, dishing out a career-high in assists on the best passing and three-point shooting team in the league on the way to an unexpectedly good record atop the Western conference for a club everyone considered as too old.

Paul and Parker will probably face off in the playoffs or in London and that will be fun to watch although tough to keep up with!

At the other guard position, Kobe Bryant, who hasn't looked old either despite 16 seasons and a lot of miles on his odometer. OK, his shooting percentages are down but he's led the league in scoring all season, carried the Lakers' outside game and even defended frequently the opponent's best guard while working unbelievably hard to stay in top shape.

Even his absence for a shin problem was positive because it allowed other players to pick up their games before the playoff run.

At the two forward spots we meet up again with my two favorites for the MVP trophy, Kevin Durant and LeBron James. I went into detail concerning their qualities in my last column. Both players have played a lot of power forward recently when their coaches went to a small-ball, uptempo line-up.

Whether at the 3 or 4 position, this duo has been consistently brilliant and KD is approaching LBJ's all-around talent with his best career stats in passing, rebounds and ...dunks! Watching them play together in London should be absolutely spectacular.

Someone we won't be seeing on Team USA is my center, Dwight Howard, who is out with a back problem. He's still the best center in the world and the leading rebounder in the NBA but I would put him dead last in NBA communication skills towards his fans, coach and team!

All season long poor Dwight has been wishy-washy about his plans and desires, denying rumors that seem to emanate from his close entourage and wasting a lot of energy prying his own foot out of his mouth.

Another candidate would be Shaq's favorite, Andrew Bynum, who does some crazy things himself but is playing the best ball of his life while missing few games and even seems a BETTER option in the money time now compared to "free-throw bricking" Dwight.

Since Andrew won't play for Team USA this summer, Howard's replacement will likely be Tyson Chandler who might also replace Dwight as the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year. His impeccable leadership on the defensive end is sorely missed in Dallas but highly appreciated in New York for a revived Knicks squad.

Now I pass the ball to you to choose the Second and Third All-NBA Teams in your comments!

George Eddy

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