OKC Thunder: The Rich List: Edition Four
By Rich Condon
- So, how do we fix it? Glad you asked. I’ve got two solutions:Do away with positions entirely. A few years back, the NBA eliminated the center position from the All-Star ballot, instead having three frontcourt players and two guards. Why stop there? Coaches in the NBA have played four, sometimes even five guards at once; why should an exhibition game that is supposed to showcase the best players in the league during that season so far have to limit itself to positions?
If the five best players in the West are Steph, Harden, Russ, KD, and Kawhi Leonard, for example, then why not let those five start? If, in a year or two, the five best players in the East are Lebron, Giannis, Joel Embiid, Kristpas Porzingis, and Jimmy Butler, than why shouldn’t they be starting together? The game itself is pure entertainment: take positions out of it and let’s get weird with it.
2. My own personal favorite: playground rules. The top 30 players (considering the rosters are expanding to fifteen players next year, it stands to reason that the All-Star rosters should expand as well), are put into a player pool. The top two vote recipients are named captains. Let’s use Steph and Lebron as examples. The captains select their fifteen players from the pool.
Who picks first? Well, there’s really only one way to decide these things: Rock Paper Scissor, best two out of three. Just imagine Lebron and Steph having a stare down before engaging in Rock Paper Scissor. The NBA can even have their own Selection Sunday show. It would probably have to be during the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday, since that’s the only time all the teams are off before All-Star week.
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The Inside the NBA crew would host the event. No Conference limitations, no position limitations, just 15 guys on each team. Imagine seeing Lebron, KD, Anthony Davis, Russ, and Kawhi Leonard go against Steph, Kyrie, Jimmy Butler, Giannis, and James Harden? Doesn’t that sound amazing? Wouldn’t it be cool to see Draymond get switched onto Steph? Or Lebron having to guard Kyrie?
Personally, I think this would be way more fun, and it eliminates silly snubs like Russell not being selected as a starter.
So, yeah, that’s what I think, now onto the Rich List for the week of January 16, 2017- January 22, 2017, and in honor of eliminating positions for the All-Star Game, I’ve eliminated positions on the List this week.