Where’s the love? As we look forward toward a weekend full of exciting dunks, wrap around passes and plenty of star power, there will be one thing missing - the underdog.

The 55th annual All-Star game will be played this weekend and I’m sure we will get plenty of Kobe, Shaq, Nash, Wade, A.I., McGrady and King James. And that’s fine. I love watching the big name players play, except for Tim Duncan who’s as exciting to watch as taking the JEPET on a Saturday morning.

The problem is we are missing the small-name guys who really make this game fun for all of us.
For the most part, the fans did a good job this year with the voting, except for voting in the injured Jermaine O’Neal and the automatic bid that Yao Ming receives for just being Yao. The question then is who deserves to be a reserve? The league allows the coaches to vote for the reserves. The only problem is, there are only seven spots on each roster.

We're talking seven spots: two guards, two forwards, a center and two wild cards. This year it’s your Golden State Warriors who got the shaft. Both Jason Richardson and Baron Davis got left off the west roster. Richardson averages 23.1 points a game and Davis averages 19.9 points and 9.4 assists a game. Some other leading candidates for the snub job of the year are Mike Bibby with 21 points and 5.6 assists a game; Carmelo Anthony with 25.8 points and 5.4 rebounds a game; and the Bucks’ Michael Redd with his 25 points per game.

The ultimate diss goes to my boy Gilbert Arenas from the Washington Wizards. How in the world does the fourth leading scorer in the entire league at 28.4 points a game, not get voted in by the fans or the coaches? Arenas is an incredible talent. He handles the ball well at the point, and routinely takes the ball to the hole and dunks over big men. If it weren’t for the injury to O’Neal and the graciousness of Commisioner David Stern, Arenas would not be making the trip to Houston.

When it is all said and done I’m sure this All-Star weekend will be full of great olley-op dunks and behind the back passes, but the love for the underdog will definitely be missing.