NBA All Star 2010: Tim Duncan over Dirk Nowitzki?

Tim Duncan has been announced as the starter for the West in the 2010 All Star game that will take place at the new Cowboys Stadium. This means that our beloved Dirk will not get to start, even though he is playing lights out this year. The NBA All Star voting has become somewhat of a joke lately, I mean how do people vote for Allen Iverson? the only lasted 3 game with the Grizzlies and finally after a few weeks the 76ers decided to pick him up. Iverson is starting for the East despite the fact that he is having the worst season of his career.

Let’s look at Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan to see if Duncan actually deserves to be the starter for the West. I am in no way saying that I think that Duncan doesn’t deserve to be an All Star. However as you can see by Allen Iverson being voted a starter, and Tracy McGrady almost being voted in despite only playing 6 games this year, something is definitely wrong.

Dirk Nowitzki 2010 NBA Statistics
Games Played 41
Points Per Game: 25.5
Shooting %: 48%
Assists Per Game: 2.5
Rebounds Per Game: 7.9
Blocks Per Game: 1.2

Tim Duncan 2010 NBA Statistics
Games Played: 38
Points Per Game: 19.8
Shooting %: 50.9
Assists Per Game: 3.2
Rebounds Per Game: 10.4
Blocks Per Game: 2.3

After looking at stats of Duncan and Nowitzki you can’t really say that one player deserved it more than the other, but as a Mavericks fan it would been nice to see Dirk start the All Star game in Dallas. Next year remember you can vote as many times as you want so vote for Dirk and the other Mavericks All Stars as much as possible, because clearly the NBA is not worried whether the players in the game deserve to be there or not. My recommendation to the NBA would be put a 20 game rule in place to keep undeserving players out of the game.