Jermaine O'Neal looks like he will go down as the dummy who fouled up the storybook end to Michael Jordan's All-Star career. All he had to do was lay off Kobe Bryant, how hard is that? I'll set it up, and admittedly I only watched the ESPNEWS highlights on this game. Jordan makes a dream shot over Shawn Marion to put the East up 2. Kobe gets the ball in the corner looking to throw up a prayer, but Jermaine bails him out by fouling him. Later Kobe admitted that he had thoughts of blowing the free throws, and probably could have made all 3 and ended the game. As it was, he tied it and instead of a dream OT win for the East on Jordan's final points in an All-Star game, we got the Garnett Show and a 10 point West 2OT win.

Somehow though, it was fitting. Plenty of folks said Jordan should not have returned - either time. When last he wore a Bulls uniform he clinched the NBA title for his team, their sixth crown in a row with him as a full-time player. When we look back on his career, we'll have to lump him in with guys who hung around too long, like Hank Aaron in baseball, but I still think it would have been nice to see him make one last great game winner.

What wound up being a side note was the ultimately Vince Carter gave up his starting spot to Jordan after what turned out to be a totally unnecessary circus. If a guy wants to give up his spot, let him do it. If a guy is going to do that for you, take the spot. End all the crying and whining please.