Artis Gilmore
02-18-2006, 09:31 AM
Seattle Times - Detroit coach Flip Saunders, who commands the East team, will replace Indiana's injured Jermaine O'Neal with New Jersey's Vince Carter.
"The starters have always been a fan vote and Vince has probably gotten more votes for the last seven years almost than anybody that's played the game," Saunders said. "He had a lot of votes this year."
Among Eastern Conference players, Carter was sixth in the fan balloting with 1,065,464 votes.
Saunders considered Detroit's Rasheed Wallace and Toronto's Chris Bosh because they play the same position as O'Neal.
"I didn't go by, I'm going to take a 6-11 guy and put him in there," he said. "I just thought he would be a good guy to start. I didn't want to start any of my guys because I'm going to bring them all in at the same
"The starters have always been a fan vote and Vince has probably gotten more votes for the last seven years almost than anybody that's played the game," Saunders said. "He had a lot of votes this year."
Among Eastern Conference players, Carter was sixth in the fan balloting with 1,065,464 votes.
Saunders considered Detroit's Rasheed Wallace and Toronto's Chris Bosh because they play the same position as O'Neal.
"I didn't go by, I'm going to take a 6-11 guy and put him in there," he said. "I just thought he would be a good guy to start. I didn't want to start any of my guys because I'm going to bring them all in at the same