HOUSTON -- Don't look now, but as far as the All-Star Game goes, NBA centers have suddenly gone the way of the dinosaurs.
There are so few dominant centers in the league that the NBA decided to take the center position off the All-Star ballot, leaving fans to vote for a starting lineup using two positions, guard and frontcourt, in the league's midseason classic.The centers, obviously, are furious with the NBA for making it appear as though they're not an important facet of the game."I think they should bring it back," New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler said. "If you're starting any team and you're building a team you obviously have to have the center position. It's not a lost art. We've still got obviously great big men."Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard sees the exclusion as a slap in the face for all the hard work centers have put in."I don't think it's fair for all the centers to be taken off the ballot," Howard said. "Basically I just feel like we're not needed any more. That's why I created the Center Center for Centers."Howard has a PSA -- it lasts 2 minutes, 13 seconds -- on YouTube called Save Our Centers. It's his tongue-in-cheek way of trying to save the center position, and includes photos of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Yao Ming, Shawn Bradley, Patrick Ewing, Brook Lopez, Manute Bol, Ralph Sampson, Chandler and others."This year centers have been left off the All-Star ballot leaving dozens of centers -- centers just like me -- feeling alone and scared," said Howard on the YouTube PSA. "Thankfully you can help."Here at the Center Center for Centers, we give centers the love and care they need, and we train them as point guards ready to become productive members of the NBA. They learn how to dribble, how to make a layup without dunking, how to shoot from 3, and how to wear those tiny, tiny sneakers."LeBron James, who has played all five positions for the Miami Heat, said that the center position is much different than it was in the 1980s and '90s."The dominant centers that we had in the '90s and '80s, we don't have as many now in today's game," James said. "Those bigs were going out and getting you 25 [points] and 12 [rebounds] every night."And that leaves centers out on the perimeter setting picks and rolling to the basket, with few exceptions, instead of planting their big bodies in the trenches and bringing some physicality to the game.Dallas native Chris Bosh, who has reluctantly morphed from being the Heat's power forward to its center, said he felt the NBA's exclusion of centers on the All-Star ballot was eventually going to happen because today's game is mostly dominated by guards and forwards."I guess they felt it was a reason to open up the doors for another power forward to make it in [the All-Star Game]," Bosh said. "The way the game is going I think we're taking tags off the positions a lot."It's just about going out there and playing, and no matter what the position is. Everybody's getting fast, you have to have the speed to keep up with guys, and dudes are stepping out and knocking shots down."Heat coach Erik Spoelstra acknowledged that he rarely plays a traditional center because he doesn't have one who is a game-changer."I'm not opposed to centers," Spoelstra said. "If we had a dominant center we'd be playing one. The thing that made the most sense to us is to play positionless. That fits our personnel the most."From the NBA's perspective, the All-Star Game is a collection of gazelle-like players who are highly athletic and can leap over buildings. There's not much exciting about a low-post move from a burly-looking center."It's a fun-filled game, normally guards and wing players," Chandler said of the All-Star Game. "When you play street ball and you get chosen, normally the guards and the glamour positions go first."That's why Howard created his YouTube PSA."Please say you'll be the angel for the center who is suffering right now," Howard's PSA said. "Call the number on your screen [1-951-2center] or go online [thecentercenterforcenters.org] to pledge your support."The Center Center for Centers. We're centered on centers. That's our center."Dwain Price, 817-390-7760Twitter: @DwainPrice
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