Tuesday, April 15, 2008
AVERY'S ANTICS SPARKS NHL TO MAKE NEW RULE
Maybe Martin Brodeur should just stop talking to Rangers' super-pest Sean Avery. It just leads to new material.
On Friday, the Bergen Record reported that Brodeur admitted he had grown tired of Avery's trash-talking, which often centres around the goaltender's 2003 divorce. "It's been five years," Brodeur says he told Avery. "Find something else."
Well, Avery found something else to do in Brodeur's crease on Sunday. After taking his second goaltender interference penalty of the series, Avery came up with a new, and apparently legal, way to get into Brodeur's head. With his back to the play, Avery parked at the edge of Brodeur's crease and waved his arms wildly in a bizarre effort to distract the Devils' goaltender. He also waved the blade of his stick back and forth in front of Brodeur's mask.
"I've been watching games for 33 years and I have never seen anything like that in my life," Brodeur told the New York Daily News. "If it's within the rules, it's within the rules. The official came over and said it probably wasn't something that should be done."
National Hockey League Senior Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell issued a statement Monday to make the league's position clear going forward. The statement said:
"An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty (Rule 75) will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender's face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play."
So if anyone tried Avery's ploy again, it will be a two-minute penalty.
"Nobody should have to play hockey with a stick an inch from your face," Brodeur told the Daily News. "But it wasn't a bad play. While he was doing it, I couldn't see anything. The two misses were just luck, I couldn't see a thing."
Although his innovative screen was not directly responsible, Avery did end up scoring a powerplay goal shortly after getting in Brodeur's face.
"It's a 5-on-3 and I'm trying to get to the puck," Brodeur said. "I'm trying to look around him. It was almost impossible because of the stick so close to my face."
For Avery, it was his third goal of the series, which the Rangers lead two games to one. Ironically, through the first two games, he had been lauded in the local press for avoiding the theatrics while playing some great, gritty hockey.
"That's the way he plays, and when he plays that way, he plays his best hockey," Jaromir Jagr told the Daily News before Game 3. "He's scoring goals, working hard, taking bodies, drawing penalties -- perfect."
However he plays, it's clear that he's hugely important to the Rangers. The Star-Ledger noted on Monday that since acquiring him last season in a trade with the Kings, the Rangers are 50-20-16 with Avery in the lineup and 9-13-3 in the 25 games he's missed.
The majority of Avery's peers were not impressed with his act, however he did receive some support from an unlikely place.
"I think he wants to win," San Jose Sharks forward Jeremy Roenick told THE CANADIAN PRESS. "Sometimes he looks like an idiot and it may look bad, but it's probably effective. The kid is a competitor. He has a difficult job, but he's just trying to win night in and night out and that's what is the most important thing."
Outspoken telivision personality Don Cherry disagreed.
"I've known this kid since he was about 16 years old," Cherry told Toronto radio station The FAN 590. "Once a jerk, always a jerk. You can't blame the referee, because . he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Could you believe what you were seeing? I've never seen anything like that and I've been in every league that's ever existed."
Desire to coach still drives 81-year-old Paterno
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- There is the eight-year-old Paterno Library, which will serve students at Penn State University for decades to come.
There is the interfaith spiritual center on campus, and the scholarships and faculty chairs, all endowed, financially and emotionally, by Joe and Sue Paterno.
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AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Joe Paterno's footprints have made a lasting impression during his 58 years on the Penn State campus.
All serve as testament to the impact the football coach has had on Penn State, and all are redundant. Penn State already had a building that captured what Paterno has meant to this university in his 58 years here. It is at the center of campus, looming over the green that extends nearly to Harrisburg. It is the heart and soul of the Penn State.
It is called Old Main, and if the nickname Old Main doesn't fit Paterno like a pair of rolled-up pants and white socks, nothing does. Like Old Main, Paterno is a university icon, a symbol that represents Penn State to its alumni around the world. Old Main and Paterno are repositories of political power at Penn State.
Old Main holds the offices of president Graham Spanier and his administration.
Paterno holds, well, Paterno, a two-time national championship coach and the conscience of college football for decades.
All of which is only half the definition of Old Main -- the latter half. Like Old Main, built in 1863 and rebuilt in 1930, Paterno is old.
In the end, that's what the current debate over the future of Penn State football is all about, isn't it? The Nittany Lions are only three seasons removed from going 11-1 and finishing third in the nation. They went 9-4 in each of the two seasons since. Those three seasons followed a five-year spell of mediocrity at best -- the Nittany Lions had losing records in four of those seasons (2000-04).
So, yes, let's get it out in the open. Joe Paterno is old. By measures demographic and historic, Paterno is old.
He is 81, born in Brooklyn on Dec. 21, 1926. On the night of his birth, the U.S. attorney in New York City launched a raid of 58 night clubs and restaurants to stanch the flow of holiday liquor. That's right -- Paterno came into this world during Prohibition.
Paterno arrived several months before 13-year-old Paul Bryant wrestled a bear in the Fordyce Theater.
Paterno is three and a half years younger than Yankee Stadium, which will be euthanized next year because of old age. He played at Brown in the same era as Darrell Royal played at Oklahoma. Royal retired from coaching after the 1976 season.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the people who provide employment statistics on the first Friday of every month, doesn't even bother to measure 80-year-old workers. They lump them in the catch-all category of "75-and-over." In March, the Labor Department estimated the workforce included 679,000 male employees at least 75 years old, or about 10 percent of that age group.
Washington is one of the few cities outside of University Park, Pa., where an 80-year-old man yearns to work long hours in the public eye. Six members of the U. S. Senate are over the age of 80. Two of them, Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), both 84, are running for re-election this year.
"I'm told that 90 is the new 80," Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who turns 91 in November, told The New York Times last week.
If that is true, maybe 80 is the new 65. According to U.S. government data, a man who turned 65 in 1991 had an average life expectancy of a shade under 15 years. When Paterno hit that demographic wall in 2006, his last complete season had come a last-play loss to Michigan away from an undefeated regular season and a berth in the BCS Championship Game.
Maybe old doesn't have the same meaning that it did a generation ago, a decade ago, or even last week.
"People are making a big deal out of this stuff," Paterno says. "I'm reacting to you because you're writing a story about the whole business about my age. I thought we could do some things. But I'm really uncomfortable talking about it. I really am. I am uncomfortable talking about it. It just seems like a waste of time."
Paterno gives a short laugh. He is sitting on a love seat in the office that he says he hates. It is an office right out of the book, "Football Arms Race for Dummies": oversized, overtrinketed, over the top.
"I got my own shower," Paterno says, gesturing down a hallway, "which I've never used."
Paterno prefers to work at his house, where he insists that he has everything he needs, including a "private telephone" and "a fax machine." He described how he watches tapes at home.
Tapes? Penn State video coordinator Nick Downs confirmed it. Downs, sounding like a typewriter repairman, said he has a dwindling stockpile of working tape decks. He uses them until they give out and then he moves to the next one.
You tease Paterno that he might have the last working VCR in Centre County. Hey, this is a guy who has donated in the neighborhood of $4 million to his employer and still buys his suits at the outlets in Reading. If it works, he's not about to throw it out.
"Don't get on me. It's a DVD/tape," he said of his home machine. "If I want to use a DVD, I use a DVD. My wife has got a computer right adjacent to the kitchen. She's got a DVD. … But I'm not much of a -- I get the information I want."
According to research that ESPN asked the NCAA to conduct, at least four men have coached college football after the age of 80, including John Gagliardi, still winning at Division III St. John's (Minn.). Like Paterno, the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg coached major-college football after the age of 80. Stagg won 16 games at Pacific after turning 80. But he lost 33 and tied two. Since Paterno turned 80, he has a record of 10-4.
On the other hand, all four losses came in Big Ten Conference play. In the past two seasons, the Nittany Lions are 9-7 in the Big Ten; in the past eight, they are 32-32.
| Unhappy Valley |
|---|
 From the injury to linebacker Sean Lee to losing the recruiting race for Terrelle Pryor to a series of embarrasing off-the-field incidents, Penn State has endured a nightmarish offseason, writes Bruce Feldman. Blog  |
Last week, wide receiver Chris Bell, already suspended for academic and other off-field issues, pulled a knife on teammate Devon Still, extending a litany of legal problems for Paterno's players over the past year. Five of them remain suspended. The university dismissed Bell from the team.
"Some people are concerned about the fact that some of our kids have misbehaved," Paterno said before Bell's arrest last week. "There's a handful of them that have misbehaved. And I think we'll get some of those guys straightened out."
Last week, university president Graham Spanier told the Associated Press that when Paterno's contract expires after the 2008 season, the university will confer with the coach to decide what is next. This from a president who hosts a monthly talk show on an NPR-affiliated public radio station called "To the Best of My Knowledge."
So Spanier, to the best of his knowledge, doesn't know when Paterno will leave, either.
The honest truth is, neither does Paterno. But he says he will know before anyone else.
"It's nice so many people are interested. It gets to be, it's almost like you can't …" He sputters before the thought bursts forth. If you want to hear it in Paterno's Brooklyn patter, come down hard on the italicized words:
"As if I would not know when I couldn't get it done, you know what I mean? … I don't need the money. I don't have anything to prove. I love this place. I always want it to be good."
So how will he know?
"If I can't go through the kind of day that I've got to go through," Paterno replies. "When I go to bed at night, I go to bed with a pad. If I fall asleep right away, say 9:30, it may be 3 o'clock in the morning I'm starting to twist and turn a little bit. I may go into my den -- it's right off our bedroom -- go in there and get a pad and work for an hour and go back to bed.
"When there isn't that sense of urgency and details, you know. How can we make So-And-So better? Do we have the right guys in the right place? … I think when that isn't a part of it, then I probably ought to get out of it. Sit around, and travel. I have no urge to do anything. Except coaching."
The public knows Paterno for his thick glasses and that full head of hair only recently begun to gray. His coaches and players know him for his obsession with details. They say he has maintained it even as he is closing his sixth decade in coaching.
"There are things that happen at practice," says his top defensive assistant, Tom Bradley. "I'll give you an example. And the kid [fourth-year corner Willie Harriott] was funny. Joe was yelling at him from like two fields over, and the kid goes, 'Scrap' -- that's my nickname, Scrap -- 'how did he see that?'
"I said, 'Hey, Willie, I've been here forever. I don't know.'
"'How did he see my hand on his [the receiver's] back from way over there?'
"'I don't know. It's like a mystery.'
"He said, 'Well, what's in those glasses?'
"'I don't know. I can't figure it out.'
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AP Photo
Joe Paterno's style hasn't changed much on or off the field during his 42 years as head coach.
"… Here's the thing I try to explain to people," Bradley said. "If you just took -- and all you had was not the players but him in practice, OK? -- and you just filmed him in practice, because his attire doesn't change and he wears the same stuff, you would not know the year. I don't think it's any different from what I remember playing here. I remember doing the same stuff. He's still in every drill, coming around all over the same place. He doesn't coach from a tower, you know what I mean. He's working his way around, whatever he wants to get to."
On this April Wednesday, Paterno moves quickly back and forth on the two practice fields in Holuba Hall, the Nittany Lions' indoor practice building. He stops and explains why he watches the drills.
"If I show up, they show off," Paterno says. "You got me?"
Paterno gives quarterback Pat Devlin a talking-to and a belly rub.
"He just wanted to make sure that I understood what I need to do is get the ball in there to a running back so that they know the ball is in there," Devlin says after practice. "Today, we were doing one-on-ones [passes]. Sometimes, in one-on-ones, you just get into bad habits. There's no defenders, nobody you have to look off, so you just stare right at the receiver. So I go back there, I thought I was looking straight ahead and then looking out. He came rushing over to me. 'You're staring down the receiver! Don't do that!'"
Paterno gives fifth-year offensive lineman Mike Lucian a kick in the pants. That's usually a metaphor. Not at this practice. Paterno kicks Lucian in the seat of his pants.
"I've never snapped before in my life," says Lucian, who this spring moved from guard to center. "I'm having a lot of trouble with the shotgun snap. [Quarterback] Paul Cianciolo, another fifth-year guy, is working his butt off. It doesn't help him out when I have a bad snap. So Joe came over and gave me a kick in the rear."
If Paterno gives his players the business, his players give it right back. As they stretched during one recent practice, according to Bradley, one player said to Paterno, "Coach, we're the only place in America where the coach is older than the trees around the practice field."
Paterno belittles the notion that he will keep coaching to make sure that he passes Florida State coach Bobby Bowden as the all-time leader in coaching victories. Last season, Paterno closed the margin from three wins to one. Bowden leads, 373-372.
"I don't care about the record," Paterno says. "I really don't. Honestly. You know when they bury you, you going to look up at your stone and say, 'Hey, I got a record?' You're dead. You're gone. I think there are other things that are more important. I think Bobby would say the same thing."
Maybe so. But don't mistake Paterno's being above the fray for his being tired of the fray.
"I'm a competitor," he says. "If I don't have that competitive urge -- you know, there's always a couple of new kids on the block. You know what I mean? You gotta be the macho guy. You know, they're not going to push me around."
Paterno means other coaches. But the competitor in him won't let anonymous voices, be they on "the Web site," as he refers to the Internet, or on the Penn State board of trustees, get in his way.
"Some people said, 'You're being selfish.' Sure, I'm being a little selfish. But after 58 years, I think I got a right to be a little selfish."
A few months ago, Paterno traveled to Washington to attend an 80th birthday celebration for his friend, William Schreyer, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch, and former U.S. Ambassador Anne Armstrong. Schreyer, a 1948 graduate of Penn State, has donated $58 million to his alma mater. Paterno, in his toast to his friend Bill, told a story of being in Washington with Schreyer shortly after the 1992 election and being invited to the White House by President George H.W. Bush.
"Here was the most important, powerful, single position in the world," Paterno says, "and you know what? They're taking the pictures off the wall. All right? No guns. All right? No coups."
That rendition of patriotism, so stirring that another attendee, former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., walked over to Paterno and said, "That was wonderful."
The U.S. government has an orderly succession of power, outlined in the Constitution and tested by death, scandal and the voice of the voters. Penn State football does not. The angst in Nittany Lion country over how much longer Paterno will coach simmers. Some fans want Paterno to retire. Some just want certainty. Paterno wants them to trust his judgment, even at 81.
Ivan Maisel is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Send your questions and comments to Ivan at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.
A Drive Toward the Goal Of Greater Freedom
Video
The Jeddah United women's basketball team, made up mostly of students and housewives, practices layups. They hope to one day represent their country abroad.
» LAUNCH VIDEO PLAYER
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- The Jeddah United women's basketball team trickled onto the court, each player wrapped in a black abaya and head scarf. Within minutes, the women had shed their cloaks and were in uniform -- white pants and jerseys with their names in red -- practicing layups, passes and foul shots until they were wet with sweat.
The team, made up mostly of Saudi students and housewives, is preparing for a local tournament this month. But what the women would really love to do, many said, is compete internationally and represent their country abroad, something Saudi Arabia does not permit.
"We want to reach Olympic levels," said Shatha Bakhsh, 21, a law student. "We have a lot of potential, but not the chance to show it."
Saudi Arabia follows a strict version of Islam that bans men and women from mingling and does not allow women to drive or travel without a male guardian's permission. Powerful religious clerics also ban sports for girls in public schools, deeming it un-Islamic, and recently canceled two rare all-women's events, a soccer match and a marathon. Gyms for women were closed in the early 1990s and have been allowed to reopen, but only when affiliated with hospitals.
Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries competing in the Olympics without a female delegation. Though the kingdom has come under increasing pressure from the International Olympic Committee to include women on its team, many in this deeply patriarchal and traditional society agree with the restrictions, believing that allowing female athletes could lead to Western-style independence for women and an erosion of established culture.
But Lina al-Maeena, Jeddah United's founder and team captain, said women's sports are a positive force and should be an integral part of every young woman's life.
"When parents say that sports is sinful for girls, it really upsets me, because they're depriving their daughters of something that's very good for them," said Maeena, who has two young daughters.
There are more than a dozen women's basketball teams in this Red Sea city, the country's most liberal, involving several hundred players. Some operate legally but quietly under the umbrella of women's charitable societies or as part of private high schools and colleges, but others operate without a government permit, as in the case of Jeddah United.
Many of the teams maintain a low profile, refusing photos and interviews for fear of drawing attention to themselves and being forced to shut down. But some, like Jeddah United, are seeking to make public appearances and are pushing for change.
The phenomenon has prompted sharp words from the conservative clergy. In a recent posting on the Web site http:/
"Opening these centers is one of the main reasons and the biggest doors leading to the spread of decadence," the decree states. "And it is known that the only women who will frequent these centers are those with little or no manners."
It concludes: "Banning the opening of these sports centers is not a ban on sports. A woman can practice sports at home, and there are many ways to do that, or she can race her husband in a deserted area, like the prophet Muhammad -- peace be upon him -- who raced with his wife Aisha twice."
In March, the women of Jeddah United were angling for a chance to play in a regional tournament in Kuwait. But Kuwaiti officials said they needed approval from the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee. Maeena said that she asked Saudi officials for a permit but that they refused to issue one, saying only that the women did not have clearance.
Maeena said she is convinced the government is not against the idea, pointing out that the teams have been allowed to organize tournaments and that articles and photos about the proliferating women's teams have started appearing in the local press.
But without permits or official sanction, teams have little chance of receiving funding and sponsorship, she said. Televising games and allowing women's teams to represent the kingdom abroad would give women's sports a big boost, she said, and would help pay for training and accreditation for female coaches and referees, of whom there are only a handful.
"The idea of Saudi women playing sports is socially unacceptable to some people," Maeena said. "That's the barrier we're trying to break."
Maeena's club has grown from six members to more than 100 since it started in 2006 with divisions for children, teenagers and adults. The club has won four local tournaments in the past two years.
One of the most gratifying experiences for Maeena has been seeing young girls blossom after they take up basketball, she said. "You see them developing self-confidence, attitude, personality. It gives them a sense of empowerment," she said. "They arrive shy, and in a very short period they are outgoing, energetic, motivated."
The team's co-captain, Maha bin Laden, remembers yearning to be an Olympic athlete after watching the 1988 Seoul Games with her father when she was 10. The niece of Osama bin Laden -- she has never met him -- shared her Olympic aspirations with her father, who told her, "In Saudi Arabia, women can't become athletes."
"Sports is my life, my passion," said bin Laden, 29, who wears jersey No. 3 like her favorite player, the Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade. "But many people here think sports is just for boys."
Rawabi Zahed, 23, said basketball rescues her from the stresses of daily life. After she drops her children off at school, she practices for two hours before going to her college. "I'm married, with kids, and I study," she said. "But after a game, all the heaviness goes away. I feel happy inside."
Zahed, who prays regularly and wears a head scarf even when outside Saudi Arabia, said that nothing in Islam bans women from sports. "Our society just has to get used to it," she said. "It's not yet normal for them to see women playing sports. But times are changing, and they have to start accepting it."
Because of the country's strict social codes, Zahed said, her husband is not comfortable with the idea of her being photographed, appearing on television or traveling without him. "But if people get used to it, he will, too," she said.
After a recent game against a local high school, which Jeddah United won, French coach Pat Saddik made the team run laps.
"A lot of my team is not physically fit," said Saddik, who is married to a Saudi and whose daughter Tamara, 15, plays on the team. "A lot of these girls have not had proper physical education since they were young."
Saddik said she hopes the game will be accepted soon so the team can get funding for an indoor basketball court. "We played and practiced outdoors in the heat and humidity in August," when temperatures can top 100 degrees, she said.
After the postgame workout, Zahed, Tamara Saddik, several other Jeddah United players and the referee started a friendly half-court game.
Maeena, who is eight months pregnant, sat on the sidelines, watching wistfully. "I love basketball because it makes me feel 17," she said. "Even married, with children, when I play basketball I feel like I'm in high school again."
Tamara Saddik, a ninth-grader with long braids, said she'd love to make it to the next Olympics with the Saudi team. For now, though, her dream "is just to learn how to dunk."
Kansas State's Beasley: 'Money Is Pretty Big Factor' in Going Pro
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Beasley admitted "money is a pretty big factor." He said going pro is the right decision for him and his family. He also said he's ready to raise his "game to the next level."
Beasley's coach, Frank Martin, had said he'd be surprised if Beasley made any other decision than to turn pro. Martin said it was the best decision to Beasley to go pro. He said if he had advised him any other way, it would not have been in Beasley's best interest.
Martin went on to say that he thinks Beasley is ready for the NBA.
Beasley will likely be the number one pick in the draft on June 26.
Beasley, the Big 12 player of the year, had the second-most rebounds and third-most points of any freshman in NCAA history, leading Kansas State to its first NCAA tournament victory in 20 years.
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Roundtable: Who is the league's 2007-08 MVP?
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant have been fighting for position in the MVP race, just like their respective teams -- the Hornets and Lakers -- have been battling it out atop the tight Western Conference.
Click the pics below to view our writers' MVP ballots and comments:
 Abbott |  Adande |  Brooks |  Broussard |  Ford |  Hill |  Hollinger |  M. Jackson |
 S. Jackson |  Legler |  Palmer |  Rose |  Sheridan |  Stein |  Thorpe |
A season like no other has had an MVP race like no other.
The hot names early in the season were Kevin Garnett (for Boston's 29-3 start), Dwight Howard (for Orlando streaking on the road) and LeBron James (for being LeBron).
Then as it dawned on everyone that the Lakers and the Hornets were for real, and might not fade as in seasons past, two more names broke through: Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul.
From there, it became a question of what voters (and fans) valued most:
• Garnett's defense and leadership toward the biggest team improvement in NBA history;
• Howard's impersonation of Shaq … and Superman;
• LeBron's amazing numbers in the face of team turmoil;
• Paul's mastery of the point guard position and firm control of the surprising Hornets;
• Bryant's key role in leading the Lakers while holding the unofficial title of Best Two-Way Player in the Game.
In the end, KB24 prevailed narrowly over CP3 on ESPN.com's ballots, as many expect to happen in the official voting results. Bryant's supporters made clear their vote was not a "lifetime achievement award," but at the same time, many have wondered how long he must wait to win. Since Paul is just 22 years old, and James is only 23, presumably their time will come, some would say. And Garnett took home his MVP trophy four years ago.
We will remember 2007-08 for many things, including the rebirth of the Celtics (thanks, KG) and the New Orleans renaissance (thanks, CP). And it remains to be seen what dramatic stories are in front of us in the next 10 weeks. But in any case, we won't be able to tell the tale of this past season without Kobe, from his heated accusations of last spring and summer to his success with Team USA to his surprising and gratifying star turn as the leader of a potentially great Lakers team.
For those reasons and many more, Kobe Bean Bryant is the ESPN.com choice for NBA MVP.
| ESPN.com's NBA MVP Ballot | ||
| Rank | Player | Stats |
 |  Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers Shooting Guard Team record: 56-25 | Points per game: 28.4 Rebounds per game: 6.3 Assists per game: 5.4 Kobe's complete statistics |
 |  Chris Paul New Orleans Hornets Point Guard Team record: 55-25 | Points per game: 21.1 Assists per game: 11.6 Steals per game: 2.7 Paul's complete statistics |
 |  Kevin Garnett Boston Celtics Power Forward Team record: 64-16 | Points per game: 19.0 Rebounds per game: 9.3 Assists per game: 3.5 Garnett's complete statistics |
 |  LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers Small Forward Team record: 44-36 | Points per game: 30.0 Rebounds per game: 7.9 Assists per game: 7.2 Complete stats |
 |  Dwight Howard Orlando Magic Center Team record: 50-30 | Points per game: 20.9 Rebounds per game: 14.3 Blocks per game: 2.2 Complete stats |
The Tally
Kobe Bryant: 64 points (9 first-place votes, 2 second, 3 third, 1 fourth)Chris Paul: 60 points (4 first-place votes, 8 second, 2 third, 1 fourth)
Kevin Garnett: 44 points (1 first-place vote, 4 second, 5 third, 3 fourth, 2 fifth)
LeBron James: 37 points (1 first-place vote, 1 second, 5 third, 5 second, 3 fifth)
Dwight Howard: 10 points (3 fourth-place votes, 4 fifth)
Amare Stoudemire: 6 points (2 fourth-place votes, 2 fifth)
Tim Duncan: 1 point
Manu Ginobili: 1 point
Tracy McGrady: 1 point
Hedo Turkoglu: 1 point
Five points awarded for first-place votes, four points for second place, and so on.
Click here to view our writers' ballots and comments
Henry Abbott | J.A. Adande | Maurice Brooks | Chris Broussard | Chad Ford | Jemele HillJohn Hollinger | Mark Jackson | Scoop Jackson | Tim Legler | Chris Palmer | Jalen Rose
Chris Sheridan | Marc Stein | David Thorpe
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