Bosh Doesn’t Play Like An All-Star, James Gets Thumbs-Up from Oakley

The NBA All-Star game dominated headlines this weekend and ended on Sunday with the West All-Stars defeating the East All-Stars 143-138. Los Angeles Clippers Chris Paul got the MVP honors–a first for a Clippers player. Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant scored 30 points (six rebounds) for the West while New York Knicks Carmelo Anthony grabbed 26 points (12 rebounds) as the East’s leader.

The league has one more day before it returns to action on Tuesday. Before the break, the news was all about Miami Heat’s LeBron James and his recent historical performances. With the celebration of Michael Jordan’s 50th birthday this weekend, comparisons were made about the two and former NBA player Charles Oakley and Jordan teammate gave his support to King James.

Meanwhile James’ teammate Chris Bosh played in Sunday’s All-Star game and let’s just say he didn’t exactly perform like one. This comes after Bosh was part of Saturday’s winning trio in the Shooting Stars competition.

Oakley Supports James

Miami Heat's LeBron James

After Jordan commented last week that he’d take Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James since five Championship rings beats one, his former teammate Charles Oakley give a thumbs-up to James.

He said of the league’s reigning MVP via the Palm Beach Post this weekend, “I appreciate him as a person, a mindset out on the court to perfect the game. Everybody’s criticizing him about this, about that, and he lets his game get better every year, and he got smarter every year, no matter what no one said. He let his game grow with him. The man is the best player, ain’t never gonna be a player like that. He’s going to go down as a top three player in the history of basketball.”

But what about the debate of who is better James vs. Jordan? He said, “It’s a different debate. I ask everybody, who’s the best between Magic and LeBron? Everyone says Michael’s greatest. But, OK, well, we’ll give him his props. But LeBron is a better athlete, and he can do more than Michael on the basketball court. Michael is finisher, a great shooter, and it is what it is.”

Will James get that second ring this June? The Miami Heat are +150 to do so.

Bosh Doesn’t Perform As An All-Star 

Then there’s James’ teammate Chris Bosh. With an injured Boston Celtics Rajon Rondo, Bosh got the starting nod on Sunday and well, it wasn’t pretty.

His West All-Star foes enjoyed dribbling through his legs (a nutmeg). First it was the game’s MVP, Paul, followed by the San Antonio Spurs Tony Parker.

Bosh said of the actions via CBS, “It hasn’t happened in so long, man it was like, man they’re so fast. It was like ‘what the hell?’ You can’t really react to it. I’m so long, so as soon as it happened, I was like ‘alright.’ Then Tony too. I was like, ‘Damn Tony,’ so I had to push him. He was about to get a layup, I can’t let you get a layup. Everybody want to throw it between my legs.”

At the end, Bosh played for 23 minutes with six points, two rebounds, one assist, one steal, three turnovers and two airballs.

This performance comes as Bosh entered the season with a 17.5 over/under for total points per game.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom this past weekend. He joined the WNBA’s Swin Cash and the Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins to win the Shooting Stars competition that kicked off All-Star Saturday night.This consisted of a two-minute drill to make shots over six locations on the floor, with one from the half court.

The group beat the team consisting of Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, Maya Moore of the WNBA and former Houston Rocket Robert Horry.