Sports Blog of the Day

NEW YORK - With the third tally in for the NBA All-Star Western Conference voting, L.A. Lakers’ guard Kobe Bryant (26.3 PPG) leads all Western Conference players with 1,534,020 votes.

Houston Rockets’ center Yao Ming, second in Western Conference voting with 1,396,126 leads in the center position. He is accompanied by teammate Tracy McGrady who is second in the guard position with 961,852 votes, more than a half million behind Bryant.

Rounding off the rest of the Western Conference leaders is Phoenix Suns forward Amare Stoudemire (743,639 votes) and San Antonio forward Tim Duncan (1,132,095 votes).

Phoenix will host the game on February 15, 2009.

Interested in voting? Go to NBA.com.

 NEW YORK - With the third calculations in for the NBA All-Star vote, dunk champion Dwight Howard is leaving everyone in his dust, running away with the lead with 1,709,088 votes. His closest opponent is last year’s All-Star MVP LeBron James who has 1,521,272.

Although the final tally is not yet in, the league should put Howard’s name on a jersey and pen him in as the Eastern Conference starter. The closest center on the ballot is Philadelphia’s Samuel Dalembert with only 239,089 votes.

The other Eastern Conference leading vote-getters are Boston Celtic forward Kevin Garnett and guards Dwayne Wade (Miami Heat) and Allen Iverson (Detroit Piston).

Looking like the forgotten man in the East, two-time All-Star Joe Johnson (23.4 PPG) of the Atlanta Hawks (21-10–4th seed) has received a mere 189,343 votes and sits in 11th place.

Interested fans can go to NBA.com to vote.

The game will be played on Sunday February 15, 2009 in Phoenix.

Don’t crown the Boston Celtics just yet with another NBA title to go along with the 17 they have already won.

The L.A. Lakers made a statement on Christmas Day with a 92-83 win against the Celtics, ending the guys in green’s record 19-game win streak.

Kobe Bryant finished with 27 points and was aided by teammate Pau Gasol’s 20 point effort.

This was the first meeting between these teams since Boston beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals last year and the Lakers played like they wanted to be heard loud and clear.

The overachieving Atlanta Hawks who took the Celtics to seven games in a playoff series last year, tried to make a statement of their own earlier this season but fell short on two occasions when the Celtics won both contests between these teams both in the waning seconds. The Lakers got over their hump by coming out with the win.

The Lakers reminded everyone it is a long journey to a title in the NBA.

The Cleveland Cavaliers also a top contender for a title also earned a victory on Christmas; a 93-89 victory over the Washington Wizards.

Now that the Detroit Pistons and Denver Nuggets huge trade has had time to settle in after six weeks, it appears the Nuggets are reaping bigger rewards.

The Pistons 14-10 are off to their worst start in several seasons while the Nuggets are off to the best start in franchise history.

Chauncey Billips has received nothing but praise from the fans, coaching staff and media since he arrived in Denver while A.I. has lived up to his infamous reputation on a few occasions.

Iverson was benched after skipping a practice on Thanksgiving weekend and also was fined $25K for a verbal altercation with a fan in Charlotte.

Iverson is one of the league’s biggest stars, no doubt, but he seems to be having a difficult time fitting into the Piston’s share the ball/team concept. Time will tell who made the better move as both these teams are expected to make decent playoff runs.

The NBA Oklahoma Thunder are the Detroit Lions of the NBA.

Well, not exactly since the Thunder did win two games and the Lions are still searching for their first regular season victory in 2008.

The Thunder who moved in from rainy Seattle during the offseason are 2-24 and analysts are beginning to discuss the possibility of the team beating the futility mark of 9 wins in a season; an NBA record no team would want.

The Lions 0-14, who have found themselves a part of Jay Leno’s monologue many nights, have two tough games left on their schedule, at home against the New Orleans Saints and away in frigid Green Bay where the Cheese-heads always play to win, no matter how unimportant the game may be.

The Thunder will be trying to rebuild their team around Kevin Durant who leads the team in scoring with 23.2 PPG.

The Lions will be rebuilding around . . . well . . . insert your joke here Mr. Leno.

The New York Knicks’ Stephon Marbury who was suspended after refusing to go into a game, walked out of a meeting with Knicks President Donnie Walsh and NBPA lawyer Hal Biagas after only 15 minutes yesterday. The meeting was called to discuss the anticipated buyout of Marbury’s contract.

Fifteen minutes sounds like a really short time to spend trying to agree on a buyout plan for a $20.84 million a year contract.

When you are talking about a player under a contract of that magnitude not suiting up in an entire season, there is a lot to consider when trying to come to terms on how much of that $20.84 million dollars should be handed over.

Biagas remained with Walsh for an additional 20 minutes attempting to resolve the issue but the parties seem to have hit a brick wall.

Don’t expect Marbury to ever play another game for the Knicks. The Knicks (8-8) have dumped a few of their high-salaried players and with this attempt to buyout Marbury’s contract, it’s obvious they are positioning themselves to bid on Lebron James if and when he becomes a free agent.