O'Neal selected for 5th All-Star Game

NEW YORK -- Miami's Dwyane Wade and San Antonio's Manu Ginobili were among six players picked as NBA All-Stars for the first time when reserves were announced Tuesday.\nGilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison of the Washington Wizards, Amare Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns and Rashard Lewis of the Seattle SuperSonics also gained their first All-Star selections in balloting by the NBA's 30 head coaches.\nCleveland's LeBron James, chosen as an Eastern Conference starter last week, is a first-time All-Star, too. The seven first-timers fell short of the record of 10 in 2002 and 1994.\nThe East's other reserves for the Feb. 20 game in Denver are centers Zydrunas Ilgauskas of Cleveland and Ben Wallace of Detroit, forward Jermaine O'Neal of Indiana, and guard Paul Pierce of Boston.\nGuards Steve Nash of Phoenix and Ray Allen of Seattle, and forwards Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas and Shawn Marion of Phoenix were selected for the Western Conference team.\nAmong those left off the rosters were New Jersey's Jason Kidd, who had played in every All-Star game since 1998, and Orlando's Steve Francis, a three-time All-Star.\nA noteworthy absentee was Sacramento center Brad Miller, who apparently fell victim to Western Conference coaches filling in Stoudemire as a center. Coaches were required to select two guards, two forwards, one center and two other players regardless of position. They could not vote for their own players.\nThe Kings also have three other players with 11 combined previous All-Star appearances -- Chris Webber, Peja Stojakovic and Mike Bibby -- who were left off this year's team. Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton, the starting backcourt for the defending NBA champions, also weren't chosen.\n"I was hopeful that all our guys would make it, but reality is that it doesn't work that way," Pistons coach Larry Brown said. "There's no one going that doesn't deserve it -- Wade and Arenas are phenomenal players having tremendous seasons."\nThe East's starters are Philadelphia's Allen Iverson, Miami's Shaquille O'Neal, New Jersey's Vince Carter, Orlando's Grant Hill and James.\nKobe Bryant of the Lakers, Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming of Houston, Kevin Garnett of Minnesota and Tim Duncan of San Antonio will start for the West.\nBryant hasn't played since spraining his right ankle Jan. 13. If he is unable to play in the All-Star game, NBA commissioner David Stern will select his replacement.\nThe coaches are Gregg Popovich of the Spurs for the West and Stan Van Gundy of the Heat for the East.\nPhoenix (three) has the most All-Stars, while Washington, Houston, San Antonio, Cleveland, Seattle and Miami each have two.\nThe Wizards celebrated the selection of Arenas and Jamison by halting practice as owner Abe Pollin wheeled a huge cake onto the court. At nine games over .500, the Wizards are on pace for their best season in decades and their first playoff appearance since 1997.\nIncluded in the celebration was Larry Hughes, who leads the league in steals and would have been a strong candidate had he not broken his thumb Jan. 15.\n"This is a special year," Pollin said as the team gathered around him. "C'mon, Larry, you're a part of it. You three are special. You three are All-Stars."\nThe selections of Ilgauskas (Lithuania), Ginobili (Argentina), Nash (Canada), Nowitzki (Germany), Duncan (U.S. Virgin Islands) and Yao (China) gives the 2005 All-Star game six international players, the same as in 2003 and 2004.\nGinobili, a member of the Argentine national team that won a gold medal at the Athens Olympics, is averaging 15.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists while shooting nearly 50 percent for the Spurs, who have the league's best record (38-10).\nWade leads the Heat in scoring, averaging 23.5 points along with 7.2 assists and 5.2 rebounds.\nGarnett, 28, is making his eighth All-Star appearance, the most of any Western Conference player. Shaquille O'Neal will be making his 12th appearance, the most of anyone in this year's game. Bryant, Duncan and Hill are All-Stars for the seventh time each, and Carter and Iverson are now six-time All-Stars.\nNash and Nowitzki will be together on the same team for the first time after being split up last summer when Nash left the Mavericks as a free agent and signed with Phoenix. Nash has led the Suns to a 38-11 record by averaging an NBA-high 11.1 assists, while Nowitzki ranks third in the league in scoring for the 31-15 Mavericks.\n"Hopefully we'll be on the court together quite some time and it'll be a fun game," Nowitzki said. "It'll be nice to be on the same team as him again. He makes the game so much easier for everybody else"