Last year, when Brandon Roy was selected to the bench for the Western Conference All-Stars in just his second season, there were a few dissenting voices around the league. There were claims that players such as Deron Williams should have taken his place.
Then the game happened.
B-Roy finished in 2008 with 18 points (equal tops in the West), nine rebounds (second to only Carlos Boozer’s 10) and five assists. In a game which is typically played in a haphazard fashion, Roy committed zero turnovers and shot 8/10 from the field.
People stopped questioning why he was selected to the squad. They expected him to be selected again in 2009.
Now, the big thing worth pointing out in that 2008 game, is the fact that Roy led all Western Conference players in minutes with 28:34 on the floor. That says a lot about the respect he was afforded by his coach and teammates. Of course, there is an argument to be made that Kobe Bryant made a league-enforced protest appearance of only two minutes and there were no other pure shooting guards on the squad. But that would be discounting the fact that the roster also boasted Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony who were all more than capable of switching into that role in this type of unstructured game.
Enter Phoenix, 2009. Once again, Roy goes on to log heavy minutes (31), leading all players on both sides. Sean Meagher of the OregonLive Blazers Blog questioned Phil Jackson’s mentality in playing the Blazers guard for such a large percentage of the game.
What are your thoughts on the 31 minutes? Was Phil Jackson showing respect for B-Roy, or trying to wear him out …
Roy put forth 14 points, five rebounds and five assists in this game. Once again, in a game littered with sloppy play, he finished with zero turnovers. He shot 7/8 from the field.
The Zen Master is no slouch when it comes to coaching — that is well known. He may not be keen on coaching these all-star affairs, but like anyone his competitive juices flow and he wants to win when he is out there leading a squad. Jackson knew that the value of having a player like Roy on the floor is can not be underestimated when faced with a team full of egos. Much like a John Stockton on the Dream Team, Roy is the anti-ego. He can be seen on most plays standing back on the wings, waiting for the flow of the game to come to him, rather than forcing circus shots.
In addition, he did let loose with a number of highlight reel dunks too! Sheed at BustaBucket was happy to point these out as well.
A lot of non-Portland fans doubt B-Roy’s dunking ability. Of course, we’ve seen him throw it down before. Here are a couple of highlights from earlier in the season.
More to come on the All-Star Weekend, so don’t touch that dial.
