Rare sports post.

My "All-NBA" team: The 12-man (normal-sized) roster I would put together for a team if I got to select from all the players in the NBA, based on their performances this year. The NBA picks its own honorary All-NBA team, but I don't think it's been announced yet; at any rate I've got my own opinions on the matter. If you don't care about basketball, feel free to skip this post :)

Starters
Point guard - Deron Williams, Utah Jazz
Shooting guard - Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers
Small forward - LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
Power forward - Kevin Garnett, Boston Celtics
Center - Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic

Bench
Guard - Chris Paul, New Orleans Hornets
Guard - Dwayne Wade, Miami Heat
Guard - Chauncey Billups, Denver Nuggets
Forward - Dirk Nowitzky, Dallas Mavericks
Forward - Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs
Forward - Carmelo Anthony, Denver Nuggets
Center - Yao Ming, Houston Rockets

It's awfully tough to leave out Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Brandon Roy, Pau Gasol, Andre Iguadala and so many other good players, but there's only twelve spots. In the end I think the team I picked, if all healthy and playing to their normal abilities, would be just as good as anything anyone else could come up with. They have size, strength, shooting, passing, handles, and heart.

I'm definitely rock solid in my starting five. You could make an argument for maybe someone to take Garnett's spot, since he was injured much of the year, but like I said this presumes he's healthy, so I'll take him - he's tough on both ends of the floor and a gamer.

The reserve players is where I could see a lot of disagreement. I think I went heavy on point guards and probably need a shooting guard like Ray Allen in there, but then again, who do I replace? Maybe Chris Paul, although he was #3 in the MVP voting amongst all players last year behind Kobe and LeBron! And Wade had an MVP-type season this year on a team than wasn't very good. Chauncey billups might even push out Deron Williams at point guard the way he's been playing lately. And Nash, a 2-time MVP, didn't make the squad at all! So there's just no room for a shooting specialist like Ray Allen or Joe Johnson. Sorry. No Tony Parker either, that's how crazy this team his, and no Ginobili or Carlos Boozer. I'd have to make a secondary and tertiary team to get ALL the real stars on board.

The league seems as talented as it's ever been right now, top to bottom. It's always had great stars, whether it's Kobe and LeBron now, Jordan and Hakeem and Malone in the 90s, Bird and Magic in the 80, Kareem and Dr. J in the 70s...and so on. What's gotten better in the modern era of the sport is the DEPTH of talent. Nowadays teams are chock-full of talent at almost every position, so that when say Derek Fisher missed a game for a suspension, Jordan Farmar could step in and they didn't miss much, and Shannon Brown was waiting behind him, arguably just as good or better than Farmar. So I think there was more of a dropoff in the older eras after the big stars; you had a lot of "gym rats" filling the role player spots. Big unathletic brutes for size in the paint or cagey guards who played well within the team system but didn't really stand out.

Today's athletes are so well conditioned from such an early aged, and have the best diets, therapists, doctors, trainers, and everything else than money can buy, and after you get past the superstars, there's really not much of a drop off in talent, just a smooth decline. That's why it's so hard to make a list like this, of only twelve guys. I think Kobe and LeBron are certainly head-and-shoulders above the rest of the league, and Howard is getting to be, but after that there is a DEEP talent pool... also due to the steady influx of foreign players. The whole world is a broad talent base to pick from, and the NBA has never looked as talented as it probably is right now.

Not saying it's more entertaining (I still love my 80s 'Showtime' Lakers), just played at a higher level, like soccer or any sport really. Modern athletes just benefit more from modern technology, even if genetics don't change.

And ok, maybe I would put Ray Allen on the bench and take out CP3. I don't need 4 point guards. Still, ouch. ...Consider Allen on the bench instead of Chris Paul. Now let me publish before I change my mind.