Who’s going to Vegas?

No Yao Ming. No Steve Nash. No Carlos Boozer and probably no Allen Iverson. I don’t remember the last time the NBA All-Star game was without its two most popular players and its reigning MVP all out because of injury. If this year’s game wasn’t going to be in Las Vegas, this would probably be remembered as one of the unluckiest All-Star Events in history.

The rosters are accurate given the circumstances. Some of the more deserving players were out injured for extended periods of time, some played for horrible teams and some were just plain underachieving.

Prominent names that have been left out of the All-Star rosters are Chicago’s Ben Gordon and/or Luol Deng (edged out by Rip Hamilton and/or Vince Carter), Milwaukee’s Michael Redd (injury), Boston’s Paul Pierce (injury) and Atlanta’s Joe Johnson (bad record) for the East.

In the West roster, notable omissions include (though some may still get in to replace Nash and maybe Iverson) Utah’s Deron Williams and Mehmet Okur (credit went to Carlos Boozer), L.A.’s Elton Brand (tired and underachieving), Seattle’s Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis (missed time to injury), Portland’s Zach Randolph (shady character on a bad team), Denver’s Marcus Camby (deferred to Melo and AI), L.A.’s Lamar Odom (missed a lot of time) and New Orleans’ Chris Paul (injury).

Who should’ve been in and who should’ve been kept out? For starters, I don’t think New Jersey deserves two spots. And since Jason Kidd has been playing his best ball of recent memory and Vince Carter has had too many undeserved trips to the All-Star game, I’d keep Kidd and take out Carter. Based on team performance and his contribution, I’d replace him with Ben Gordon. Chicago is winning and Little Ben is providing the firepower. Based on merit, however, I’d replace Carter with Michael Redd. Redd was playing extremely well and kept Milwaukee playoff-relevant up until he got injured. Redd is far more critical to Milwaukee’s fate than Gordon is to the Bulls and Carter to the Nets.

I’m also not buying Rip Hamilton as an All-Star. I didn’t agree with having four Pistons last year and I’m not agreeing with two of them this year. The Pistons are a good team and I think naming Rip (and to a certain extent, Chauncey) diminishes the contributions of Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace to their success. Each of the four plays an integral and critical role for the team and deserves equal recognition. I’d swap Hamilton out for Joe Johnson, who has been a bright spot for the Hawks this season, averaging a career-best 25.5 points per game. Johnson has been playing too well and too consistently for him to be ignored.

For the West, who already has two replacements in Carmelo Anthony and Josh Howard and possibly two more on the way, I think Tony Parker is the biggest anomaly in the lineup. Parker shined last year when he led the team in scoring, filling in for the hobbled Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. But this year, Duncan is looking like vintage Tim Duncan and Parker has taken a small step back. It’s not that he isn’t contributing at a high level. It’s just that someone like Deron Williams has clearly outplayed him. With Utah unrepresented due to Boozer’s injury, Williams or Mehmet Okur should probably be on the roster. Another replacement possibility would be Seattle’s Ray Allen, who led the league in scoring in the month of January.

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In what can only be a message from the Basketball Gods, the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns will each have two players playing in the All-Star Game. When the rosters first came out, the Mavs had only one, Dirk Nowitzki, and the Suns had three, Nash, Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudemire, despite having a worse record. Now things have evened out with the addition of Josh Howard and Nash’s decision to sit out Vegas because of injury.

Though the game itself will be probably less entertaining with someone like Steve Nash out, it’s refreshing to see new faces like Melo, Josh and Dwight Howard in the roster and Gilbert Arenas in the starting lineup.

Oh, and you can never go wrong with Las Vegas.

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For questions, comments or corrections, please e-mail me at emailcarlramirez@yahoo.com.