NBA All-Star Thoughts

The NBA Hall of Fame released the finalist for this year’s class.....they are: Charles Barkley, Dominique Wilkins, Joe Dumars, Geno Auriemma, Dick Vitale, Adrian Dantley, Ralph Sampson, Dave Gavitt, Gene Keady, Chet Walker, Don Nelson and Van Chancellor.....

Barkley is a lock for induction, as should be Dumars.....the three other people who should get inducted this year are Dantley, Sampson, and Vitale...unlike the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the NBA Hall takes into consideration a person’s college and international experience which is why Sampson should make it....

In the early 1980s while at Virginia, Sampson was the first dominant big man in the college game since Bill Walton....Dantley was an All-American for Notre Dame and an NBA All-Star with Detroit and Utah....

Finally, Vitale is absolutely the good will ambassador for the game of basketball.....yeh, his detractors will say some of his antics are shtick.....however Vitale is truly passionate about basketball and is always promoting the sport.....he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame....

Of the 24 players in today’s NBA All-Star game, only Tim Duncan and Steve Nash completed four years of college....the other players stayed three years or less at college or did not attend college at all....

Is it just me or does it seem like Allen Iverson has been in the league forever.....but in reality, the 76ers All-Star guard is only 30-years old and has been in the NBA for 10 years....

With a third of the season left, my predictions for the NBA championship will be Detroit against Dallas.....

The best story in the league this year is the play of the Los Angeles....the Clippers that is....at the break the Clippers are 30-21 and have a 4½ game edge over their counterparts, the Lakers....

Remember in his Portland days when Rasheed Wallace used to get T’ed up every other game.....

I wonder if Larry Brown is sorry he left the Detroit Pistons to go and coach the New York Knicks....

Whatever happened to former All-Star Game MVP Randy Smith of the Buffalo Braves?.....