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Arenas: Calderon isn't an all-star

Michael Grange, February 11, 2008 at 3:47 PM EDT

This via True Hoop: Gilbert Arenas really doesn’t think Jose Calderon deserved to be an all-star anyway. And there’s some other good stuff too.

Arenas writes:

What Makes an All-Star?

It’s good to have All-Stars make the All-Star game. Looking at the West and the East, it’s kind of weird not seeing Shaq in the All-Star game. That’s kind of weird. And not seeing Tracy McGrady, wow. But, it gave everybody an opportunity. Like, David West, I actually have not seen him play at all this year – but, I know what he did last year, he was hitting a lot of game winners. I don’t know what his numbers are, if they’re enough to be an All-Star, but, if the coaches picked him, then he’s an All-Star. I give it up for him as a first-time All-Star, same with Chris Paul.

That’s going to be the coolest jersey ever though … that David West jersey for being a Western Conference All-Star … West on the front, West on the back. That’s going to be the bomb jersey.

Look at Baron Davis, his team is 10 games over .500, he’s averaging 22, five and eight … BD is my man, hundred-grand strong. He worked so hard on his body this year, coming in in shape and what he did for the city of Golden State last year, bringing a team that was down under and beating the No. 1 team in the Western Conference and he’s basically doing the same thing he did last year. If All-Star was at the end of the year last year, he would have been an All-Star, so, this year he should have been an All-Star too. He’s playing great basketball and has that team moving in the right direction.

Sometimes people get overlooked when they start looking at, “OK, this team is No. 1. Why are they No. 1? Oh, because of this guy and this guy and this guy …”

No. Sometimes teams are No. 1 because they have a great team. They don’t have a whole bunch of All-Stars, they just have a great team. Sometimes when coaches are voting they’re like, “OK, that’s the No. 1 team and he’s playing well, so let’s put him in.”

No. That’s not necessarily the case.

For sure, Chris Paul makes that team tick. If you take Chris Paul off, would David West still be an All-Star? Now, I’m not trying to take anything away from West, he deserved it this year, but you have to ask stuff like that.

That year when Detroit had four All-Stars, since then Chauncey Billups and Hamilton have become three-time All-Stars, but at the time they were just a great team. Same thing with the Mavericks last year and Boston this year, they’re great teams. Boston has two All-Stars, one got voted in and then Paul Pierce, is putting up 21, five and five. OK, 21, five and five on the No. 1 team is an All-Star. Then, this year, Ray Allen wasn’t an All-Star, but I don’t know how close he came to being voted one. In past years he would have been voted on because of this whole thing where the winning teams were awarded more players.

I don’t think the answer is to expand to a 14 or 15 man roster. I think it should be just like it is at 12 players. Every year somebody is going to get snubbed, that’s how it is. Every year, somebody is going to feel like they should have been there. This year, Baron Davis got snubbed.

On the East side, I don’t know if there were any big snubs. I mean, some people wanted Jose Calderon. Jose Calderon? Who? Come on man, this is All-Star, people. When I’ve seen some of the names that are being thrown around on the ticker as snubs, it’s killing me. I understand Calderon has the best assist-turnover ratio in the league, but you know what’s funny? All back-up point guards have the best assist-turnover ratios. Screw it, Kevin Ollie should be an All-Star then! For like five or six years, Ollie was No. 1 in assist-turnover ratio!

An All-Star is an All-Star! He’s playing at a high level. That means, if you take him off the team, that team should fall down if he’s that one guy. An All-Star means that he is dominating the game of basketball. It’s not even about numbers necessarily, it’s about dominating.

I could probably say that Richard Jefferson got snubbed maybe Josh Smith too. His 18 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks puts him at No. 14. Richard Jefferson is No. 13. Turkoglu is No. 15. But, El Calderon? Come on.

I’ve been loving the way he’s been playing for the last two years. When he first came into the league he was a little timid and scared to shoot the ball, but he’s taking over that team. But All-Star? He’s about 20 years away from being an All-Star.

This is the difference between Antawn and Caron stepping up with me out and Calderon stepping up with T.J. Ford out: Antawn is second in the league in double-doubles and there’s only five players in the league averaging 20 and 10 – he’s one of them. There’s Dwight Howard, Al Jefferson, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh and Antawn. Four of those five are All-Stars and their teams are winning. Caron is playing at a high level. He’s taking over the game when he’s been playing – All-Star. Calderon is managing a team. If he was up for Rookie All-Star, Sophomore All-Star … BOOM … he’d get in. He might even be MVP! But for the big show? The big game? No.

You know what? I’m sorry people. I think I’m biased because my team was fifth in the Eastern Conference and I was averaging 29, five and five and I got snubbed off the All-Star game. So maybe I’m a little biased. I was in that Larry Brown era, so, my fault. You know what? Calderon might have been an All-Star. I can’t look at my situation and judge everybody else’s situation in the All-Star game. I guess my 29, five and five and being in fifth place wasn’t good enough at the time.

You know what’s funny about that? All-Star is the top 24 players. I wasn’t top 24, I was number 25 for the All-Star team, but, at the end of the season I was All-NBA Third Team, so that means top 15. I was confused at the time. How was I top 15 a couple months later? But anyway, the All-Star game is a time where people are happy and people are having fun. I don’t know how fun it’s going to be this year. Two of the comedians are out, me and Shaq. You’re going to have a whole bunch of guys over there serious and stuff.

My surprise was T-Mac. I think I lost a bet on that one. T-Mac is averaging like 20-something and … yeah, Brendan Haywood won that bet.

  1. CLEMENT CHAN from Mississauga, Canada writes: Wow, Arenas really worships All-stars. Like I mention before, All-Star is no more than a monkey show. At that time, I was a bit emotional when Jose cannot get in. Ironically, the monkey show idea seems to become more solid now, especially for certain players like Arenas.

    So next year, Arenas is ready to paint his ar$ red, ready to lick anything so as to make it to get into the show. Unbelievable!

    Arenas trying to step on someone to make him taller simply shows what an idiot he is.
  2. Maurzio G. from Canada writes: I love Arenas's candor but he's underestimating Calderon's play -- Jose may not deserve to be an all-star this year but not for the reason Arenas cites. To distill Jose's contribution to the Raps success soley to his league-leading a/t ratio is narrow-sighted. Give Gilbert his due however, during the pre-season in an interview with nba.com (I think), he named Jose as the player in the east who might surprise this year. When asked why, he simply said 'I don't know, I just like his game.'
  3. Jake Richardson from Kingston, Canada writes: Surprisingly, I agree with Arenas. My philosophy is this: The playoffs determine the best team, and an all-star nod rewards the best players. I have no problem with D-Wade making the all-star team despite Miami's brutal record. I have a big problem with David West making it over Al Jefferson. Jefferson is, flat out, a better basketball player than West.

    Ray Allen should be in the game over Joe Johnson, because Ray Allen is a better basketball player than Joe Johnson, and not because Allen plays for Boston.

    Jose Calderon is good. Is he one of the best 24 players in the NBA? I really don't think so. He is somewhere between the 15th and 20th best player in the East. Ergo, not a snubee. That being said, Jose's time will come, and looking at his rate of improvement, it'll come sooner rather than later.
  4. Guy MacPherson from Vancouver, Canada writes: Gotta love Gilbert! I disagree with him on Jose, but I think Gilbert's great. The league needs more Gilbert Arenases.
  5. mike iber from Canada writes: Gilbert the clown! What is the circus not in town, get off your butt and start taking some shots at a rim not an all-star, jealousy will get you nowhere buddy! The reason he goes on like this is for 1 reason: he feels threatened for next season, plain and simple, the guards for the east will be WADE and CALDERON, get used to it buddy!
  6. Roger S from Canada writes: Arenas is ball-hog, got whapped by US basketball, now he is whinning, yelling and bitching.
  7. Roger S from Canada writes: Arenas really talks trash now. Jose not only lead NBA in Asst-To ratio, he is also 5th in Assts among all Point Guards of NBA. Arenas must think he was snubbed, now he starts poking around?
  8. andy c from Canada writes: lol. does anyone else think jose read's arenas's blog?
  9. Guy MacPherson from Vancouver, Canada writes: After seeing Jose light it up tonight, yeah, I suspect he reads Arenas's blog.

    It's great to see him a little more selfish. He's a high percentage shooter and when no one else is really doing anything, he should be more aggressive offensively.
  10. Yertu Damkule from Canada writes: it's funny, his only argument for why jose shouldn't make it is because he's not a well-known name...and then, in the next paragraph, he talks about the things that an all-star should be ('...He’s playing at a high level. That means, if you take him off the team, that team should fall down if he&8217;s that one guy.'). for the last two months (all but 14 games this season), jose's been the starter, and without him, they most certainly would have fallen down. plus, he's been putting up allstar-like numbers. i'm probably off a bit, but he's 15th in the L in FG% (1st among PGs), 7th in 3pt%, 5th in assists (2nd in east), 1st in ast-TO, & 2nd in FT%. it's a bit disingenuous of gil to use just one stat to 'justify' why jose isn't deserving of a spot, but oh well. clearly, he's done his research, so his opinion is validated.
  11. The Business from Canada writes: Love Arena's candour. But not his analytical skills.

    Still, it's good to see an athlete expressing an opinion beyond the usual vacuous, monotone post-game soundbite. He's willing to put himself out there and while I disagree with his assessment, I respect the effort.
  12. E W from Canada writes: Gilbert's wrong on one key point -- if we lost Jose to injury right now, our playoff chances would be so in the toilet they wouldn't even to worth thinking about. He's key to the Raptors' success.

    If it takes the league another year or two to wise up to that, so be it.
  13. John Nicholson from Oshawa, writes: Arena's buddies at Washington, Jamison & Butler 'All-Stars' have managed a 1-9 record and 8 losses in a row and counting. Great work.
  14. Ryan Hickman from Canada writes: Gilbert who?? He's the guy who couldn't make the U.S team right? Yeah I think I know him...He plays for Washington right? Wrong! He plays for himself...always has and always will.

    What has be brought to Washingston? When did they last win a playoff series? This is the same guy in civies every night who talks a lot of game but hasn't played one in how long? Talk is cheap!

    Calderon is deserving of a spot on the East team...bottom line.
  15. F Rim from Winnipeg, Canada writes: 'An All-Star is an All-Star! He’s playing at a high level. That means, if you take him off the team, that team should fall down if he&8217;s that one guy.'

    Using Arenas' analogy above, He IS NOT an All-Star either.
  16. Khan dor from Canada writes:

    Grange,

    As a sports reporter, next time Agent 0 is in town, you should ask him this question,

    'Gil, in your opinion, did John Stockton DESERVE to make the All-Star during his first few years of prominence for the Utah Jazz?'

    Personally, I'd be very interested to hear Mr. Arenas' answer. :-)

    http://www.nba.com/playerfile/josecalderon/index.html

    http://www.nba.com/history/players/stockton    stats.html
  17. Roger S from Canada writes: Arenas really made nothing happen. His previous team, Golden States, really sucked big with him hogging the ball. Like being said by F Rim, taken Areans out of equation, Wizzards are still winning, what can we say about this guy?
  18. Paul Sui from Markham, Canada writes: Agent Zero, Jason Kidd will momentarily be traded to Dallas. In all likelihood, Jose Calderon will be the worthy replacement of Jason Kidd.

    I also don't think that the Wizards will make the playoffs this year. The reason is that you're the CANCER of your team. You need to be traded!

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