The World's Biggest Pickup Basketball Game

Our friends at an online sportsbook.com have the West listed as 4-point favorites for tonight's NBA All-Star Game, which makes sense. The West has won three of the last four All-Star games (though the East won last year). And the players from the hometown team seem to always want to give it a little bit more than everyone else. Houston has two guys in the West line-up (even though one of them appears to be clinically depressed), and I expect the guards to feed the ball to both Tracy McGrady and to Yao Ming all night long.

In addition, the West probably has the one guy whose self-esteem might be be affected by winning or losing an All-Star game, Kobe Bryant. So if I had to put some lumber down, I'll give the points and take the West.

The best odds for MVP are on, surprise, surprise, Kobe Bryant at 14-to-5. Following that are LeBron James at 5-to-1, Tracy McGrady is 6-1, Dwyane Wade at 7-to-1, Yao Ming at 8-to-1, and Shaq at 9-to-1. Needless to say, I like Kobe.

NBA All-Star 2006 [NBA.com]