Gregg Popovich and Eric Spoelstra to coach the NBA All Star Game

For NBA fans in India, it was not easy to find a team and stick with it loyally. How could you if one team only aired on TV only a couple of times? A couple of matches on Friday and Saturday. About eight or ten matches per month. And in the days of dial-up connection, watching anything online wasn’t an option. It was easier to be a fan of the game than the fan of a team.

There was one constant for us fans in India. The NBA All Star game. The one opportunity to watch the best players in the business put on an exhibition. If aliens from Space Jam were to come and abduct the most talented players on Earth, doing so in the third week of February at the All Star game would be ideal for them. In Space Jam, the aliens abducted the players but still ended up losing to the Loony Toons, led by Michael Jordan. My theory is that they lost because they neglected the need to abduct a coach, and thus ended up losing, because they couldn’t even make a plan to contain a bunch of cartoons and Jordan, in spite of being taller than the basket itself.

The All Star game is more structured. It foresees the folly of putting the best players in the world on two teams and allowing them to coach themselves. Although they are more than capable of doing so on the floor, the rotations and substitutions require a coach to assign minutes. The coaching staff for the All Star game for the East and West are those from the teams with the best records in their respective conferences as on 3 February. The head assistant coaches from those coaching staffs will be coaching the teams in the Rising Stars Challenge.

Last year’s coaching staff is ineligible to repeat as coaches, so that rules out the Bulls and Thunder’s coaches. Scott Brooks of the Thunder and Tom Thibodeau of the Bulls won’t be on the sidelines anyway, as in the Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat are on top with a 30-14 record, and in the West the Spurs have the NBA’s best record with 38-11. Mike Woodson of the NY Knicks almost made it, as his team were 30-15, but the Heat have lost one fewer game.

“It’s awesome. It’s a testament to our coaches’ preparedness. As players, we go out there and just try to execute their game plan. We’re happy for them.”- said LeBron James of his coaching staff.

This once again shows the disparity between the Eastern Conference and Western COnference. The Heat have the best record in the East, but there are three teams in the West with better records than them. The Spurs at 38-11, the Thunder at 35-12 and the Clippers at 34-15. Six teams in the West have won 30 games already, but only two have won 30 in the East. Looking at the bottom, there are five teams with 20 wins or less in the West and there are seven in the East with the same.
“We’re happy to go. We’re excited about it. You don’t spend any time thinking about it as it’s happening; you’re just trying to prepare your team and make sure you have the best record. Now that it happened, it’s cool. We’ll make the most of it. Our staff is thrilled about it. Our players gave us congratulations afterward. That’s about as rare a thing as you’ll ever get in this league,” said Heat coach and the coach for the East in the All Star game, Eric Spoelstra.LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are in the starting lineup for the East All Stars and Chris Bosh is among the reserves. Rajon Rondo’s injury opens the door for the coach to insert one of the reserves into the starting lineup. Spoelstra may well insert Chris Bosh.

“I’ve only given this thought for the last nine minutes,” Spoelstra said. “But I will tell you this unequivocally: My loyalties are first and foremost always with the Miami Heat.”

The last time three players from the same team started in an All-Star Game was in 1990, when Magic Johnson, James Worthy and A.C. Green represented the Lakers.

“It will be just like it has been in the past: a heck of an opportunity to enjoy amazing talent,” Popovich said. “That’s not just a b.s. or trite statement. It’s true. When you’re around those guys, you look around the room, and you can’t believe you’re in the same room with them. It’s a huge honor just to be a part of it.”

Gregg Popovich is piling up the honours. He is 64 years old and has coached four title-winning teams: in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007. He brings his A -game to the sidelines and also when being made to entertain reporters, whom he largely considers banal.

The Spurs have Tim Duncan and Tony Parker in the All Star game as reserves. Their organization is a true class act, who have helped their team to be one of the, if not the most consistent dynasty in the NBA over the last decade and a half. Here’s the full roster of the All Star game.