Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
LeBron James led all NBA players with 2,549,693 All-Star votes and became the first player in history to draw at least 2.5 million votes on three separate occasions.
Lakers guard Kobe Bryant led the West and was second overall with 2,456,224 votes.
No surprise there, right?
But how about the fact that Allen Iverson, who was out of basketball for a chunk of the season and has played a total of 19 games, will start for the East alongside James, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard and Dwyane Wade?
This guy basically quits on Memphis because he’s not playing enough and then ends up on a bad Philly team…and he’s a starter in the All-Star Game?
And how is David Lee, who averages 19.1 points and ranks sixth in the NBA in boards (11.2) and double-doubles (41) , not among the Top 10 centers?
Bryant will lead a Western squad that includes Steve Nash, Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tim Duncan.
Onetime Seton Hall recruit Jesse “The Takeover” Morgan has enrolled early in school.
But it’s not Seton Hall.
“He’s at UMass,” Fred Snead, Morgan’s Godfather and coach, said by phone.
“Yes, he is at UMass,” confirmed a source close to the UMass basketball program.
The 6-foot-5, 175-pound Morgan, out of Philadelphia Olney, signed a Letter of Intent with Seton Hall in the fall but Snead says he does not have a qualifying SAT score.
The Big East does not accept non-qualifiers, but the Atlantic 10 does. Morgan will have to spend a year in residence at UMass and meet their minimum academic requirements before potentially being eligible for the second semester of the 2010-11 season.
“He doesn’t have a qualifying SAT score,” Snead said. “He wasn’t going to qualify [at Seton Hall]. The Big East doesn’t take non-qualifiers.