Joe Johnson rookie game

["Josh Ozersky" <jozersky1@nyc.rr.com>]

Watched all the festivities.  Gene K. favorite Desmond Mason
got robbed in the dunk contest.  Should have been him competing
against Jason Richardson.  The idiotic Dunk Wheel spoiled the
entire proceedings anyway.  NBA marketing at its worst.

The rookie game was interesting, in that we saw a much more assertive
Joe Johnson than we are used to -- in an all-star field of his peers, no
less.  You would expect him to be overshadowed by the other young bucks,
and he was to an extent (Darius Miles should have gotten the MVP -- he
had something like seven alley oops, including one to himself off the
backboard).
But Joe showed again what he has.  He made several beautiful passes,
including
one off the dribble that made me yell out loud.  He handled the ball in
traffic
through all of clutch time, made several steals, and even hit some shots,
including
a clutch three in the closing minute.  He also blew one dunk and had another
one
blocked, and missed some easy shots.  Of course, they were easy because he
created them himself...I wonder if he isn't hiding some kind of injury.  He
hardly
seems able to get over the rim on his dunks.  Maybe that accounts for his
shot,
too.  Anyway, he was the best all-around team player out there, along with
(*sigh*) Tony Parker.

Josh