walker is in!

[mberry@journalink.com (Mark Berry)]

          Antoine made the All-Star team.

          That's the good news.

          The bad? Four Lakers made the team. In addition to starters
          Shaq and Kobe, L.A. also placed Van Exel and Jones on the
          team.

          Walker made it in the East along with Miller and Smits of
          Indiana, Jayson Williams of N.J., Glen Rice of Charlotte,
          Tim Hardaway of Miami and Steve Smith of Atlanta.

          Along with the two Lakers, the West reserves are Tim Duncan
          (hurt me), David Robinson, Vin Baker, Mitch Richmond and
          Jason Kidd.

          Some notes: The Lakers are the first team since the '83
          Sixers (Erving, Moses, Mo Cheeks and "The Boston Strangler")
          to place four players on the All-Star team.

          There will be no New York Knicks, even though they are
          hosting the game.


          Notable absentees: Walker probably took Chris Webber's spot.
          Dennis Rodman is out, as is Rod Strickland. Rodman leads the
          league in rebounds and Strickland leads in assists. Also,
          Glenn Robinson (fourth), Shareef Abdur-Rahim (fifth), Webber
          (ninth), Allen Iverson (11th) and Tom Gugliotta (12th)
          make up five of the top 12 scorers in the league and none of
          them made the All-Star team.

          My opinion: Strickland got robbed, probably because of his
          bad-boy rep. Glen Rice has had just a so-so year and
          probably made it on his performance last year. Webber
          should have had Rice's spot.


          Out West, the glaring omission is Gugliotta. He definitely
          should have had either Van Exel's or Jones' spot. Why is the
          West taking three point guards (Payton, Kidd and Van Exel)
          and three shooting guards (Kobe, Richmond and Jones)? The
          team has just two reserve forwards -- Duncan and Vin Baker,
          and a reserve center, Robinson, but four backup guards.

          Anyway, I'm glad Antoine made it (although I would have
          liked to see him play Webber Wednesday night if Webber had
          made it instead; now we have to deal with a ticked-off
          Webber). Hopefully this is the first of many.

          What are your thoughts?

          Mark