Ron Artest was rocking a new do today in Orlando when the Lakers faced the Magic in a replay of last years NBA Finals.

“Boogie”, Ron Artest’s barber, was interviewed by ABC during the game today. Boogie told ABC that Ron’s hair says “Defense” in three different languages on three different sides. Boogie said the hair took three hours for the yellow Lakers color and about 1 hour for the lettering. I wonder if Ron was drunk before he went to see Boogie?

Despite 4 hours in the chair, and Kobe’s 34 points, Artest and the Lakers fell to the Magic 94-96.

Ron, you might want to shave that shit off bud.

If LeBron James is playing, I’ll watch. If LeBron isn’t playing, then I’m not watching the NBA. The only other player in the NBA who’s truly worth watching is Kobe Bryant, but I don’t like Kobe, so I don’t care to watch him play. The NBA has been trying to sell me other stars, but I’m not buying.

Guys like Dwight Howard, Dwayne Wade and Carmello Anthony are great players, but they’re not true “superstars.” Other players like TracyMcGrady, Allen Iverson and Kevin Garnett used to be superstars, but they’re not any more. Which brings me to the question at hand, why are aging stars like Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson still getting picked for the NBA All-Star Game?

So far this season, Tracy McGrady has played in only 6 games and is averaging 3.2 points. Earlier this season Allen Iverson was dealt by the Memphis Grizzlies and the Sixers picked him up in a pity-trade. In 17 total games this season, Iverson has averaged only 14.9 points and 4.4 assists. Can somebody please tell me what has been “All-Star” about either one of these guys this year?

Celtics guard, Ray Allen, doesn’t think McGrady and Iverson should be All-Stars either. The fans control 100% of the All-Star voting and Allen thinks that should be changed to include players, coaches and the media as well.

Allen commented, “Tracy, if he played, I’m sure he’d play well enough to be an All-Star player because he’s done that his career. But again, that’s taking away from another player in the Western Conference that’s having a great year, that’s been playing, that deserves to be in there.”

Ray is right, and the NBA needs a change, but NBA spokesman, Brian McIntyre, responded to Allen’s comments saying, “We look at it as a great way to engage the fans. We think it’s a good system.”

What is Brian McIntyre smoking? Does he really believe Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson should be in the All-Star game? If the NBA actually took the All-Star game seriously it could be interesting. Like I said, I won’t watch NBA games unless LeBron is playing, but that’s because I don’t know many of the younger stars in the NBA. They simply don’t get the exposure with exception of a few highlights on SporsCenter now and again.

The All-Star game should showcase of the best players that season, not the most popular. I want to see the guy who’s averaging 28 and 10 every night, not a 34 year-old, washed up star. Basing the All-Star voting on performance would allow fans to see young, fresh, small-market players, which would breathe some life into a stale, two-man league.

Commissioner David Stern needs to stop letting belligerent, NBA fans vote for their old hero’s and start picking the best players for the All-Star game based on performance. Who knows, there might actually be some players out there other than LeBron and Kobe who could catch my attention? Hell, I might even start following other teams and watching teams other than the Cavs and Lakers. But until the NBA starts promoting it’s best players, as opposed to it’s fallen hero’s, I’ll settle for NCAA basketball.

Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson as All-Stars? Give me a fucking break.

Clyde Drexler, Spud Webb, Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan were the NBA superstars of the 1980′s and 90′s. Their contemporaries today are Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Carmello Anthony and LeBron James. 

Back in the old days, the All-Star Dunk Contest was a crown jewel of the NBA season. It was prime-time, must-see television. Kids everywhere mimmicked their favorite dunks in living rooms and driveways. The dunk contest used to be the shit.

So what happened?

Image happened.

Earlier this week, LeBron James officially pulled his name out of the dunk competition, effectively ending any hope I had for an exciting show. Unfortunately, this will be just another ho-hum year for the dunk contest and NBA fans will have to suffer through a roster of NBA nobodies.

This years contestants include: last year’s champ, Nate Robinson, Shannon Brown, Gerald Wallace, Eric Gordon and DeMar DeRozan.

Gerald Wallace? Eric Gordon? DeMar DeRozan? Who the fuck are these guys? Is the NBA serious about this lineup?

The excuse superstars use during All-Star weekend is that they don’t want to risk injury and jeopardize their season. In theory, that’s a legitimate excuse. However, this is the same league where players openly admit they play to entertain fans. So which is it? You can’t have it both ways.

The real reason that today’s superstars don’t compete is because they’re too big for the dunk contest and risk hurting their images. For instance, if LeBron James came in 3rd behind Shannon Brown and Eric Gordon, that would be a disaster for his image. Case in point, LeBron is so concerned with his public image that Nike confiscated a video of him getting dunked on by Xavier star, Jordan Crawford, at a summer camp (video of Lebron getting dunked on).

So what’s the solution?

It’s simple, only invite true superstars to compete.

LeBron doesn’t lose face getting beat by Kobe Bryant or Dwayne Wade in a dunk contest. Second, put the voting in the fans hands. Let us text and Twitter votes in real-time. Finally, have a sponsor provide $1 million to the winner. If the NBA gets stars, includes the fans, and provides a huge purse, then the dunk contest would become relevant again.

Keep in mid it’s not the actual dunks that will draw attention… it’s the competition among superstars that would be so much fun to watch.

I hope the NBA and it’s players come around someday, but until that pipe-dream comes true we’ll have to settle for highlights from the past… when real stars competed.