So I have to take back a little bit about what I’ve stated about the All-Star game.  I still think the Deron got snubbed, do doubt about it.  But really, the All-Star weekend turned out as well as you could expect for a Jazz fan.

First of all, we were pretty well represented.  Fesenko and Almond were in the D-League All-Star game.  Brewer and Millsap were on the Soph team that beat the Rookies.  Millsap didn’t have a great game, but he did have the block of the game.  Brewer played well and had a ferocious windmill dunk.  But the biggest non-story that made headlines was him wearing a headband.  Steve Luhm went off about how him wearing a headband disrespected Sloan as Sloan doesn’t allow them.  Why is he trying to make this into something that it isn’t?  Even Sloan didn’t seem to care,

I don’t have any control over that, if he wants to wear a headband when he’s there, I guess he can go ahead and do it. Nobody telling him he couldn’t

Why is he trying to create news?  Like one commenter said, if the headband had said “Sloan Sucks,” then you have an issue.  There are a lot of things players wear that don’t make a difference in their shot, but they wear them for fashion or whatever.  I thought it was funny though that Millsap wouldn’t wear one because he was scared of Sloan.  And Brewer though that he was going to get fined.

We didn’t have anyone in the slam-dunk contest or the three-point shootout.  I though KK could have been in the 3P contest, but they were showing stats and guys were shooting 46% from 3 but were only 7th in the league.  K3 is below that so it’s hard to make a case for him.  Brewer could have been in the dunk contest, but when they only have a field of four, it makes it tough.  I love how Malone was one of the judges though.  He absolutely didn’t want to be there.  He never wanted to be at any of the All-Star games when he was a player.  And they thought he would want to be there for this?  The best part is when he went after Barkley for making fun of his draft-day suit.

And of course Deron was in the PS3 skills challenge.  He squeaked into the the finals when defending champ Wade put on an embarrassing show by losing a dribble out of bounds, missing shots, and then showing that he really didn’t care by missing 2 lay-ups at the end.  He even went as far as just chucking up the last two balls from the jump-shooting portion just so he could go on to the next station.  He didn’t want to be there at all.  And Kidd couldn’t hit a jump-shot to save his life.

That left Williams v. Paul for the final.  And once again we learn that 8>3.  And not only did Deron win it, he posted the event-record, 25.5 seconds.  It was great to hear the media spin on this.  The announcers basically stated that Paul was amazing and it took a record time to beat him.  Not that Deron won, but that Paul only lost because Williams pulled a miracle out of his butt.  Unbelievable.  I also like the following quotes,

Not moving at full speed, Williams clocked 31.2 seconds in the first round

And then for Paul,

Paul, the All-Star point guard of the host New Orleans Hornets, posted a strong final-round time of 31.2.

Paul’s 31.2 was clearly superior.

And finally, Boozer got to play in the All-Star game after missing last year’s with injury.  He posted 14 points & 10 boards in only 18 minutes.  He was part of the West’s comeback, but was taken out after they had tied it up.

So as I was saying, we got to see 5 Jazz players participate in the All-Star festivities.  No one got hurt.  Williams didn’t feel totally left out.  And although he’s stated that he’s over the snub, you know he’s going to use it as fuel for the rest of the season.  And that’s a good thing.

So let’s get ready for the second half of the season with GS tonight.

Other AS notes

• Kobe playing only two minutes so as to not get penalized for not playing is ridiculous.  Does the NBA not have anyone in charge of common sense?  It’s like suspending the Suns players last year for leaving the bench and going back.  How does him playing make sense?
• Does anyone at Getty check for errors with captions? - This isn’t the first time.  Do they have editors that know sports?
• Brewer and Millsap pics from the R/S game
• What’s Malone eating?  The boy next to him looks like he could use a bite.
• Why was Michael Bivins a big part of the AS festivities?  Turn back the clock night to 1993?  I grew up on BBD.  It was just weird to see him again.
• Yahoo Jazz images

GS game blogs

• Biased Fan
• My Utah Jazz
• Golden State of Mind

I don’t usually try to rip on writers too much because it’s easy to take something someone has written and try to find things you can tear apart or find contradictions. Second, it usually doesn’t add anything to the article or question.

That said, I think Steve Luhm for the Trib has grumpy old man syndrome. His “Ask the Expert” columns have become condescending and defensive. A side note… Shouldn’t his column be called “Ask Luhmy’s opinion?” It’s like the “Everybody Loves Raymond” title. Ray Romano didn’t like it because it put too much pressure on the show. If you’re claiming to be an expert, you better expect to be challenged on things.

That goes for writing overall. Once you’re out there, you’re out there. You’re going to be scrutinized, whether fair or not.

Anyway, in his latest “expert” column, he gets asked a question about whether AK or Brewer should get some minutes at the PG position. I don’t know if he just didn’t read the email all the way, but here’s the question:

Since Jason Hart has struggled as the backup point guard, could Andrei Kirilenko, Ronnie Brewer or any of the players logjammed at shooting guard and small forward play the point position?

He’s obviously talking about having someone play some backup minutes to Deron because Hart hasn’t been effective this year. Yet here is Steve’s response:

If you are asking whether the Jazz have any player on the roster other than Deron Williams, Jason Hart or Ronnie Price who could play 30 minutes a night at point guard, the answer is an unconditional, “No.”

That’s not what he was asking at all. He was talking about backup minutes. Hart gets about 13 right now. Could some of those go to AK or CJ or Brewer? That’s what he was talking about. But Luhm went off on something else and tried to make the it sound like a ridiculous question.

The other most recent example is from this blog post where he goes after a fan who questioned his complaining about having the press box moved. There are some great responses from the fans there that pretty much sum up my feelings about it. Luhm almost stooped to a personal attack on the guy that made the comment by implying he was some rowdy, drunk fan.

If he’s really writing for the fans though, shouldn’t he be listening to criticism? He should be giving the fans what they want. And I have to agree with them that for the most part, we don’t get any insider info.

I don’t know how much mail Luhm got before the internet became popular and he was a print-only journalist, but now that fans have access like never before, and can send an email in two seconds, he’s bound to get a lot more feedback. But I hope, for his sake, that he starts taking a lot of it in stride and realize how the fans are changing media. And now that he has finally discovered Deadspin, maybe he’ll lighten up.