By Rangga Sobiran, KeepItNBA contributor
This is one of our article featured on Jakarta Globe Blogs. We thought we're just going to share it here too.
As the 2012 NBA season approaches the All-Star break, I’m beginning to shift my focus to the NBA All-Star Event this weekend in Orlando, Fla.
The last time Orlando hosted an NBA All-Star game was in 1992, which was also the first All-Star game I watched. It was the year Magic Johnson came out of retirement after announcing that he had contracted HIV. The fans voted Johnson in as a Western Conference All-Star starter.
It turned out to be the monumental farewell party the fans deserved. Magic led the West to victory, while also displaying his usual magical performance, recording game highs in scoring and assists, and earning the game MVP award.
This year’s match will not likely match the legendary drama from 1992, but the 2012 All-Star game isn’t lacking for stories, either.
It starts with the late addition of Jeremy Lin to the Rising Stars Challenge, an All-Star mini game consisting of the NBA’s top rookies and sophomores. The undrafted guard from Harvard has set the NBA on fire in the past few weeks with his unexpected heroics, leading the New York Knicks back to respectability since being inserted in their starting lineup at the beginning of February.
Joining Lin and other young talents will be Spanish guard Ricky Rubio of the Minnesota Timberwolves. After putting his NBA career on delay for two years since being drafted fifth overall in 2009, Rubio has been on the receiving end of some tough criticism from the NBA community, who have questioned his ability to compete in the league.
But it didn’t take long for Rubio to prove his doubters wrong, as he has helped transform the Timberwolves into playoff contenders with his playmaking skills, evoking comparisons to late NBA legend “Pistol” Pete Maravich. Both Lin and Rubio will play for Shaquille O’Neal’s Team Shaq, who will face Charles Barkley’s Team Chuck, which includes this and last year’s number one draft picks: Respectively, Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers and John Wall of the Washington Wizards.
I look forward to seeing some fresh new faces in this year’s game, with the introduction of as many as eight All-Star debutantes: Forward Andre Iguodala, the Philadelphia 76ers’ leader and one of the league’s premier perimeter defenders; Chicago Bulls do-it-all forward Luol Deng; Indiana Pacers’ interior defender, center Roy Hibbert; Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum;last year’s All-Star snub, Portland Trailblazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge; and Memphis Grizzlies’ center, Spaniard Marc Gasol, who gets the nod this year over his brother, former All-Star Pau Gasol.
The Eastern Conference All-Stars will be helmed by Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau, while the Western Conference All-Stars will be headed by the Oklahoma City Thunder’s coach Scott Brooks — it is the first All-Star appearance for both coaches.
But the biggest story of the 2012 All-Star game is none other than Dwight Howard. With the All-Star game being hosted in Orlando, I am certain that the Orlando Magic center is going to push hard for winning the MVP award; repeating what Kobe Bryant did in Los Angeles last year. I can even see his Eastern Conference All-Star teammates buying into the plan, since fellow starters like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose are among the most unselfish players in the league.
What I find most interesting, however, is the potential awkwardness of the relationship between the Orlando crowd and Howard. Nobody knows whether the All-Star will remain in a Magic uniform much longer, with the March 15th NBA deadline looming. Howard has expressed his displeasure in the Magic’s effort to build a championship team before the start of the season, and has demanded to be traded.
Howard is also in the last year of his contract with the Magic, and intends to enter the 2012 NBA Free Agency. Although Howard has said recently that he loves the city and that there’s no place he’d rather be than Orlando, Magic fans are still left wondering. Will the Orlando crowd cheer or throw some “MVP” chants for their All-Star center on Sunday? If they do, will it be enough to keep the Superman in Orlando? Only time will tell.
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