Hey... This Guy Might Be Good at Basketball!

One of the stories being lost in a sports world dominated by the BCS/Pete Rose/NFL Playoff juggernaut is the fact that LeBron James is already one of the best dozen players in the NBA. We all fell all over ourselves to hype him up in the year before his NBA career, but now that he's actually playing basketball few people appreciate the fact that he's even better than advertised? The Sports Guy says it best: "Now LeBron is playing like a Dream Teamer. Not that the guys who made up their minds about him in those first few weeks would know that... For many, sampling LeBron was like trying out the new Chicken McNuggets: 'Yeah, I saw him once, he wasn't that good.' And that was that."

The question I have is: given all the preseason hype, LeBron's extraordinary game thus far, and the fact that he plays in a conference with few stars, how the hell is James only fourth in all-star votes among Eastern conference guards? Don't other NBA fans want to see LeBron start in the league's showcase event? And by the way, the lingering popularity of underachieving, soft, already-past-his-prime Vince Carter (the leading All-Star vote-getter) absolutely baffles me.