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Don't let reality get in your way
Updated: Monday February 05, 2001 6:30 PM
You know, maybe the voters for the upcoming NBA All-Star Game had it right: Why restrict yourself to reality at the ballot box? If you like Alonzo Mourning of the Miami Heat and Grant Hill of the Orlando Magic and think they should be on the All-Star team, put 'em on ... even if they haven't played hardly at all this year. Go for the image. Go for the long-term history over the short. Go for what you want, facts be damned. Vote for Elvis for a Grammy. Try to get Humphrey Bogart another Oscar. Put Abe Lincoln, or maybe FDR, back in the White House. Or at least give it a shot.
How many times do you stand there, looking at your choices and saying, "Jeez, I can't vote for any of these people." Bush or Gore? Gore or Bush? Nader? Go ahead, vote for Winston Churchill. Alexander the Great. Maybe Napoleon would be able to straighten out the schools. I'm sure these NBA voters are going to get a lot of grief. Mourning has that kidney ailment, and Hill has that troublesome ankle, and neither of them has done a meaningful basketball thing since last season. Voters are going to be characterized as foolish, silly, their heads in the NBA sand. Haven't they been paying attention? Well, I think they did just fine. The NBA, especially in the East, has been a drab, starless production this year. I think it was fine to vote for what you'd like to see instead of what you actually do see. My only quibble is with the choices. I, myself, would have voted for Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird. Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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