All-Star mailbag: Which starter is least deserving?

The ballot is a reflection of the way many teams have adapted to the fact that there aren't enough dominant centers being developed around the world anymore.

Ian Thomsen | Jan 28, 2014

All-Star mailbag: Which starter is least deserving? /

Kyrie Irving (left) deserves to be an All-Star, but Indy's Lance Stephenson should be the Eastern starter. — Kyrie Irving (left) deserves to be an All-Star, but Indy's Lance Stephenson should be the Eastern starter / Getty Images

The ballot is a reflection of the way many teams have adapted to the fact that there aren't enough dominant centers being developed around the world anymore. The fact that there are so few has further inflated the value of those who are playing today. Would Roy Hibbert have been an All-Star in the 1980s or 1970s? I doubt it. But his enormous presence today gives Indiana an advantage over most teams.

It will be your team in Miami, Devin. And that's how it should be. The Heat have won two championships and played in three straight Finals, and LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have been the reason for that success.

Published Jan 28, 2014

IAN THOMSEN

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Ian Thomsen, who joined the magazine in 1998, is one of SI's top basketball scribes. Along with writing columns and features for SI, Thomsen is a frequent contributor to SI.com. Before joining SI, Thomsen spent six years in Europe as the sports columnist for the International Herald Tribune, the world's largest international English-language daily. While at the paper Thomsen wrote about an array of sports for a global audience, including the major world and European soccer tournaments, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, Grand Slam tennis events, Grand Prix auto races and, very rarely, cricket. Thomsen, who graduated from Northwestern with a journalism degree in 1983, was a feature writer for The National Sports Daily during its short, expensive run of 1990-91. His first job was with The Boston Globe, where he covered Doug Flutie's Boston College Eagles and all three of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals of the 1980s. Thomsen was a feature writer at SI before taking on the NBA beat fulltime in 2000. With Luis Fernando Llosa and Melissa Segura, Thomsen covered the 2001 scandal of overaged Little League pitcher Danny Almonte and wrote the first SI cover story on Kobe Bryant in 1998. Thomsen lives with his wife and two children near Boston.