February 26, 2012; Orlando FL, USA; Western Conference guard Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers (3) passes the ball as Eastern Conference center Dwight Howard (12) of the Orlando Magic defends during the 2012 NBA All-Star Game at the Amway Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The NBA All Star Game’s starting lineups have been announced.

LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Garnet will start in the Eastern Conference’s backcourt, and Dwayne Wade and Rajon Rondo will start in the backcourt.

The Western Conference’s lineup is bolstered by a frontcourt of Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard and Blake Griffin. Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul will be the starting backcourt for the West.

The first question I have is: How long will it take Dwayne Wade to re-brake Kobe Bryant’s nose. They will be guarding each other after all.

As far as other storylines go, the Heat and Thunder could have as many as three players each in this year’s All Star game; Chris Bosh finished just behind Garnett in frontcourt voting, and Serge Ibaka, as well as Russell Westbrook found themselves close to the top of voting for the Western Conference starters.

Also, the fans apparently want to see Jeremy Lin in this game. He received by far the most votes of any player not voted into the starting lineup of either team. At 883,809 votes, he fell just 45,346 short of starting over Chris Paul.

Will the coaches decide to add him to the roster? If they did, he’d get on the team over players having better years, like teammate James Harden, who received hundreds of thousands less votes than his teammate, Lin.

Speaking of players who might not be heading to Houston despite having good years, Joakim Noah, Kyrie Irving and Westbrook all fell well short of getting into the starting lineup, and will wait to hear from the coaches if they’ve been added to the game.

Dec 19 2012; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers Pacemates dressed in Santa Claus outfits dance in a chorus line against the Utah Jazz at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

It’s December 25th and that means one thing, and one thing only: PRESENTS PRESENTS PRESENTS!

In all seriousness, today should be about family, friends… and watching good basketball!

The NBA has a terrific slate of games today:

Boston Celtics at Brooklyn Nets
New York Knicks at LA Lakers
Oklahoma City Thunder at Miami Heat
Houston Rockets at Chicago Bulls
Denver Nuggets at LA Clippers

All five are great matchups for different reasons.

The Celtics and Nets are division rivals. New York and LA have that NYC, Los Angeles thing going, and everyone wants to watch the train wreck the Lakers have become. OKC at Miami is a finals rematch from a year ago with two of the best players in the league. The Houston Rockets are a scoring machine that likes to get out and run, while the Bulls are the exact opposite. The Clippers and Nuggets both have talented young players and play exciting styles of basketball.

One day the Charlotte Bobcats will play on Christmas.

The team is getting better; Kemba Walker and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist are two great young player to build around, and Bismack Biyombo is full of limitless potential.

On this Christmas, though, Bobcats fans will have to settle for that great slate of games mentioned above, and, really, that’s not so bad, is it?

The guys from The Basketball Jones put out “A Very NBA Christmas” and you should all give it a watch as you’re perusing the NBA schedule tonight.

Some of my personal favorites?

“Ball don’t lie”, “LeBron’s A Loser”, “Let him bowl”, and “I’m Sitting All My Starters Once Again”.

Now that’s funny.

December 2, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard (12) attempts a free throw shot against the Orlando Magic during the second half at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

First it was hack-a-Shaq. Now it’s hack-a-Dwight (or Howard). Either way, the practice of fouling any player off the ball to gain an advantage with him on the free-throw line should not be rewarded. If I were Dwight Howard or the Lakers, I’d be taking my case right to David Stern.

Let me get this out of the way before I go any further. If you want to foul Dwight Howard every time he takes a shot or even has the ball, that’s fine by me. Those, at least, look like normal fouls and come within the flow of the game.

If you want to just go grab his jersey, give him a hug, or wrap him up while he’s walking down the court just because the Lakers are in the bonus, you should be called for an intentional foul, because that’s exactly what you’re doing; Fouling a player intentionally.

If those stupid plays were deemed intentional fouls, Dwight would get his shots and then the Lakers would get the ball after he was done shooting.

Also, this applies to every team who employs this strategy against a bad free-throw shooter.

I don’t see how intentionally fouling a player away from the ball isn’t already deemed intentional, but things got way to out of hand in LA last night with Orlando Magic players grabbing Dwight almost every time the Lakers entered the bonus.

These rules probably won’t be changed, but if you look at it with an open mind, you’d see how crazy it is that these off-ball fouls aren’t already being called intentional every time they happen.

Nov 29, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich reacts during the second half against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena. The Heat won 105-100. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Before the basketball even was launched into the air at mid-court in Miami Thursday night, David Stern had already issued a statement about the Spurs leaving their four best players at home for the game.

“I apologize to all NBA fans. This was an unacceptable decision by the San Antonio Spurs and substantial sanctions will be forthcoming,” it read.

Almost immediately, a rush of support poured forth from every corner of the basketball world for Greg Popovich and the Spurs.

Popovich, after all, has done this before. Popovich, after all, knows how to win championships. Popovich, after all, almost coached a bunch of scrubs to a win over the Miami Heat (which I think says more about Erik Spoelstra than Popovich, but that’s for another time and place).

Please.

It’s not like Popovich only rested Tim Duncan OR Tony Parker OR Manu Ginobli OR any combination of just two of them. He rested all of them (and Danny Green), and didn’t even bring them to Miami.

And it’s not like David Stern has never done this before. He did it to the Lakers back in the 80s. He’s got a business to protect (more on that later).

Get off your “basketball strategy” “integrity of the game” “coaching decision” high ground and remember what you were saying a few months ago when last year’s lockout shortened season was coming to a close.

“TEH BOBCATS R TANKING! WE DON LKE THIS! WHY THIS ALLOWD BY MEAN OLD STENR! THEY SHULD NO BE ALLOWD DO THIS!”

Remember that?

I do.

I even remember ESPN’s True Hoop bloggers (who I love and read every other day… most of the time) trying to come up with ways to eliminate tanking last year.

What the Spurs did last night and a few times last year and what the Bobcats are perceived to have done all of last year are really no different. Sucking in the short term to get better in the long term. For the ‘Cats that meant fielding an awful team to get draft picks which landed them Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Jeffrey Taylor, who’ve been pretty good so far in just 14 games this year. For the Spurs that meant resting their best players to ensure their health for the playoff push.

The only problem is no one watched the Bobcats last year.

People want to watch the Spurs’ Big Three. They won’t be able to see Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili much longer.

The NBA is a business, and if Greg Popovich and all of his supporters don’t like that, they should get as far away from pro sports in America as possible.

Networks like TNT and ESPN pay big (like, unfathomable to me and you) money to showcase games like this featuring the best players in the league.

Speaking of which, I just came up with the perfect sanction for the Spurs.

David Stern should announce that the Spurs will no longer be broadcast on anything but local television the rest of the year. Or, he should at least threaten the team with that sanction over a nice phone call with San Antonio’s upper management.

I have a feeling Peter Holt (owner of the Spurs) wouldn’t like that very much and might have a few words with Popovich about resting all of his best players at the same time ever again.

Oh. And if the the Spurs won the game? I’d still feel the same way! I still had to watch Boris Diaw, Tiago Splitter, someone named Nando de Colo and a bunch of people I’ve only ever heard of because I looked up the Spurs roster after I found out Duncan, Ginobili and Parker weren’t playing.

Actually, I didn’t have to watch it. There are plenty of other shows to watch while NBA games are being played without players I want to watch. Like Ancient Aliens, which while the Spurs game was on, explained how Bigfoot could be an extraterrestrial being.

Much more compelling TV than watching Gary Neal go 7-20 from the floor.

August 13, 2012; San Francisco, CA, USA; Washington Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg (37) smiles in the dugout during the ninth inning at AT

Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo is adimant, and has been all season, that the team’s ace, Stephen Strasburg will sit when he reaches a certain amount of innings.

Whether you agree with his decision or not, it’s pretty damned unprecedented to even consider sitting your best player for good in the midst of a championship run unless he was injured.

Pitchers, though, have been shut down in their rookie/sophomore seasons. It happened to CC Sabathia, but his team wasn’t contending for a penant, let alone a championship.

What would this situation possibly look like in another sport? Would the Redskins consider shutting down RG3 if they were at the top of the NFC East in week 14 if he had been hit a certain number of times, made a certain number of throws, or ran for a certain amount of yards?

Doubtful.

Since this is a website about basketball, though, what would the Stephen Strasburg situation look like in, say, New Orleans, if Anthony Davis was leading the team up the standings in the Western Conference.

No one thinks they have a chance at the playoffs, let alone a title, but, then again, who the hell though the Nationals would compete for a playoff spot?

What if Anthony Davis works 24/7 on his offense until the season starts, and that part of his game equals his defensive prowess. Unlikely, but possible.

What if he’s a 20 point, 15 rebound, three block player every night? Those are All NBA, All Star stats right there.

What if Eric Gordon turns the corner and lives up to the max contract he signed?

What if Austin Rivers can competently run the Hornets’ offense?

What if all this happens, the Hornets are in the hunt for a top four seed in the Western Conference playoffs at the end of the year, but Anthony Davis has logged 40 minutes per game with three or four weeks left in the season?

Forget sitting him for good. Would the Hornets even consider giving him a few nights off or limiting his minutes if it meant they might slide to the bottom half of the Conference and risk playing the Lakers, Thunder or Spurs in the first round?

Blake Griffin has been injury prone his first three years in the league. Greg Oden never amounted to anything because of injuries. You don’t know the names of plenty of other big men picked in the lottery, because their entire careers were lost or hampered by injuries.

If limiting Davis’s minutes means keeping him healthy for the future, why shouldn’t New Orleans consider it?

Your answer is probably, “Because that’s stupid, and why are you asking all these questions?”

My answer is, “Why not? The Washington Nationals could win a World Series this year and they’re not budging on the fact that they will completely shut down their best player, probably before the playoffs start.”

Again, it’s not going to happen, but it’s interesting to think about how this situation would play out in another sport nonetheless.

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