Ira Winderman

David Stern got it done. Night after night, with leftover toothpicks from those lunchtime turkey sandwiches, he poked and punched enough chads until Steve Nash had sufficient votes to bypass the player formerly known as Tracy McGrady in the All-Star balloting.

The commissioner likely would have made a similar effort with Allen Iverson, but didn't realize that the declining guard was listed on the Western Conference side of the ballot.

Otherwise, the fans mostly got the process right, or at least correct enough that any slights can be rectified when the coaches' selections for the seven reserves in each conference are announced next week.

So, for now, it's Iverson and Dwyane Wade in the East backcourt, with Kevin Garnett and LeBron James at forward, and Dwight Howard as the East center.

Selected through the fan vote as Western Conference All-Stars starters were Kobe Bryant and Nash at guard, Carmelo Anthony and Tim Duncan at forward, and Amare Stoudemire at center.

The least deserving among those selected?

The West situation could have been rectified if Duncan finally would give up the charade and agree to be listed at center. That way, Dirk Nowitzki could have received a deserved nod over Stoudemire, if for no other reason than the Suns don't deserve two All-Stars, let alone two starters.

In the East, Iverson's spot should have gone to Rajon Rondo, who arguably has been the best Celtic this season.

So now comes the challenge.

Conference coaches must select two guards, two forwards, one center and two wild cards at any position among their seven reserves, without being allowed to select a player from their own team.

In the West, that means deserving talent will be slighted, even with Nash passing McGrady in the final fan tabulations.

The choices here would be Chris Paul and Deron Williams as the guards, Nowitzki and Kevin Durant as the forwards, and Pau Gasol as the center, because the process becomes easier that way.

The wild cards would be Brandon Roy and Aaron Brooks, because teams with winning records deserve selections, and that would give one to every winning team in the West outside of Memphis (with apologies to Zach Randolph).

That also would leave Monta Ellis and Chris Kaman on the outside looking in, more as a factor of their teams' ledgers than their individual qualifications.

In the East, where seemingly everyone outside of the top four teams are not very good, the reserve choices would be Rondo and Joe Johnson as the guards, Paul Pierce and Gerald Wallace as the forwards, and Chris Bosh at center, because, as with Gasol, it makes the process easier by sliding a part-time center into the middle.

That leaves the two wild-card spots. And with apologies to David Lee and Joakim Noah, you have to go pretty far down the standings to find their teams.

So with bonus points awarded for winning, Mo Williams and Josh Smith get the nod for the final two East spots, giving each of the Big Four in the East two All-Stars with the exception of the Magic. True, Williams won't be able to make it back from injury in time, but he still merits selection.

In the West, some very good players get slighted.

In the East, it is so difficult to scrounge up 12 All-Stars that Stern probably felt little need to stock away a few extra toothpicks when it came to trying to avoid the Iverson nod.

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