All-Star Weekend is getting old. Here’s a surefire way to increase interest among the casual fan. Take the best parts of college basketball and implement it in to the NBA All-Star game.
Have a 16 team tournament on college alumni or continental origin, March Madness style.
Team 1: UNC
PG: Ty Lawson
SG: Vince Carter
SF: Harrison Barnes
PF: Tyler Hansbrough
C: Rasheed Wallace
B1: Raymond Felton
B2: Antawn Jamison
B3: Jerry Stackhouse
Coach: Michael Jordan
I’m not sure if there’s a greater rival in all of sports than the one going down in Tobacco Road. Indifferent UNC fans will awake like a sleeping giant and for once the state of North Carolina will pay attention to the NBA.
Team 2: Duke
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: JJ Redick
SF: Luol Deng
PF: Carlos Boozer
C: Josh McRoberts
B1: Grant Hill
B2: Corey Maggette
B3: Shane Battier
Coaches: Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley.
Laettner, Hurley and Hill would have to get their early 90s haircuts in order to make this completely righteous.
Team 3: Remaining ACC
PG: Chris Paul (Wake Forest)
SG: Iman Shumpert (Georgia Tech)
SF: Jared Dudley (Boston College)
PF: Chris Bosh (Georgia Tech)
C: Tim Duncan (Wake Forest)
B1: Greivis Vasquez (Maryland)
B2: Jarrett Jack (Georgia Tech)
B3: Derrick Favors (Georgia Tech)
Coach: Kenny Anderson
Makes you realize how integral Duke and UNC are to the ACC. First round exit.
Team 4: Big East
PG: Kyle Lowry (Villanova)
SG: Dwayne Wade (Marquette)
SF: Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse)
PF: Greg Monroe (Georgetown)
C: Roy Hibbert (Georgetown)
B1: Rudy Gay
B2: Andre Drummond
B3: Ray Allen
Coach: Allen Iverson
Whoah, this is a serious lineup.
Team 5: Big Ten
PG: Deron Williams (Illinois)
SG: Eric Gordon (Indiana)
SF: Evan Turner (Ohio St.)
PF: Zach Randolph (Michigan St.)
C: Meyers Leonard (Illinois)
B1: Jamal Crawford (Michigan)
B2: Kris Humphries (Minnesota)
B3: Carl Landry (Purdue)
Coach: Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwon Howard, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson
I think the coaches may beat the players.
Team 6: John Calipari
PG: Derrick Rose (Memphis)
SG: John Wall (Kentucky)
SF: Tyreke Evans (Memphis)
PF: Anthony Davis (Kentucky)
C: DeMarcus Cousins (Kentucky)
B1: Eric Bledsoe (Kentucky)
B2: Marcus Camby (UMass)
B3: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Kentucky)
Coach: Duh.
I consider Kentucky to be the 31st NBA team.
Team 7: Straight Outta High School
PG: Monta Ellis
SG: Kobe Bryant
SF: LeBron James
PF: A’mare Stoudemire
C: Dwight Howard
B1: Al Jefferson
B2: Kevin Garnett
B3: Josh Smith
Coach: Sonny Vaccaro
WHOAH! Favorites.
Team 8: Big 12
PG: Mario Chalmers (Kansas)
SG: Paul Pierce (Kansas)
SF: Kevin Durant (Texas)
PF: Blake Griffin (Oklahoma)
C: LaMarcus Aldridge (Texas)
B1: Kirk Hinrich (Kansas)
B2: Nick Collison (Kansas)
B3: Tony Allen (Oklahoma St.)
Coach: Bill Self
This may be the best actual team.
Team 9: Pac-10 (12)
PG: Jrue Holiday (UCLA)
SG: Russell Westbrook (UCLA)
SF: James Harden (Arizona St)
PF: Kevin Love (UCLA)
C: Brook Lopez (Stanford)
B1: Andre Iguodala (Arizona)
B2: Jason Terry (Arizona)
B3: Ryan Anderson (Cal)
Coach: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
No one would want to face this team either.
Team 10: SEC
PG: Brad Beal (Florida)
SG: Corey Brewer (Florida)
SF: David Lee (Florida)
PF: DeAndre Jordan (Texas A&M)
C: Joakim Noah (Florida)
B1: Al Horford (Florida)
B2: Chandler Parsons (Florida)
B3: Joe Johnson (Arkansas)
Coach: Billy Donavan
Without Kentucky’s guards, they have to play a big-ball lineup.
Team 11: Mid-Major/Ivy
PG: Damian Lillard (Weber St.)
SG: Steph Curry (Davidson)
SF: Paul George (Fresno)
PF: David West (Xavier)
C: Andrew Bogut (Utah)
B1: Jimmer Fredette (BYU)
B2: Jeremy Lin (Harvard)
B3: Gordon Heyward (Butler)
Coach: Shaka Smart
I know smart coaches VCU and there’s no VCU player represented, but he went to Kenyon which is where my wife went, so I have to represent.
Team 12: Europe
PG: Ricky Rubio (Spain)
SG: Tony Parker (France)
SF: Nicolas Batum (France
PF: Pau Gasol (Spain)
C: Marc Gasol (Spain)
B1: Danilo Gallinari (Italy)
B2: Marcin Gortat (Poland)
B3: Serge Ibaka* (Spain
Coach: Mike D’antoni
It’s mostly Spain here.
Team 13. Eastern Europe
PG: Goran Dragic (Sloveni)
SG: Alexey Shved (Russia)
SF: Andrei Kirilenko (Russia)
PF: Timofey Mozgov (Russia)
C: Nikola Pekovic (Montenegro)
B1: Ersan Ilyasova (Turkey)
B2: Zaza Pachulia (Georgia)
B3: Enes Kanter (Turkey)
Coach: Vlade Divac
Not what it used to be. (Drazen, Sabonis, etc.)
Team 14: North and South America
PG: Steve Nash (Canada)
SG: Leandro Barbosa (Brazil)
SF: Manu Ginobili (Argentina)
PF: Luis Scola (Brazil)
C: Anderson Varejao (Brazil)
B1: Nene (Brazil)
B2: Al Horford (Dominican Republic)
B3: J.J. Barea (Puerto Rico)
Coach: Ummmm
Nothing special.
Team 15: Africa/Asia/Australia
PG: Patrick Mills (Australia)
SG: Luc Mbah a Moute (Cameroon)
SF: Al-Farouq Aminu (Nigeria)
PF: Serge Ibaka (Republic of Congo)
C: Andrew Bogut* (Australia)
B1: Bismack Biyombo (Republic of Congo)
B2: Luol Deng* (Sudan)
B3: Christian Eyenga (Republic of Congo)
Coach: Dikembe Mutombo
Meh.
Team 16: Legends
PG: Magic Johnson
SG: Michael Jordan
SF: Scottie Pippen
PF: Karl Malone
C: Hakeem Olajuwon
B1: Allen Iverson
B2: Larry Bird
B3: Isaiah Thomas
Coach: Pat Riley
These guys are so competitive that they’d make it a game.
As Mr. Miyagi would say, “Tournament!”
Awesome! Great idea!
I like the concept but guys staying one year at a college inflates the idea…What about hometown state, country or a draft
That duke team is looking pretty soft.
@Andrew – Yeah, the thought of this post is that I always here people say, “I love March Madness, but I haven’t been into the NBA since Jordan”. There needs to be an event in the NBA (March Madness, Super Bowl), that appeals to the casual fan, and the NBA just doesn’t have it.
Something like this would really turn people’s heads and bring out longtime college hoop fans. Yeah, divided by draft years would be interesting. Anyway to divide it into SOMETHING that fans can immediately latch onto would be interesting.
@Darren – of the UNC/Duke alums Kyrie Irving is by far the most exciting player. He’s destined for greatness. I don’t know if you’re able to watch many NBA games over in Korea, but he’s THE guy to watch now. He’s only 20. The Cavs are barely on national TV, but I expect that to tick up next season. The league is already marketing him pretty hard.