ALL-STAR GAME HAS A NEW SENSATION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 4, 1993                   TAG: 9302040009
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium
ALL-STAR GAME HAS A NEW SENSATION
Once again, the NBA All-Star Game has a Magic, Orlando's Shaquille O'Neal, and a Johnson, Larry of the Charlotte Hornets.
Last year's All-Star Game was a stage for the heroics of Magic Johnson, who made his one-game season into an MVP show. Johnson retired again this year, leaving others for the spotlight.
O'Neal won the starting center spot on the Eastern Conference team, totaling 826,767 votes to become the first rookie since Chicago's Michael Jordan in 1985 to be elected to a starting All-Star berth.
The No. 1 choice in last summer's draft finished nearly 250,000 votes ahead of New York Knicks center Patrick Ewing, who had started the past three All-Star games for the Eastern Conference. Ewing received 578,368 votes.
Larry Johnson, the NBA's rookie of the year last season, won his first All-Star berth with 658,236 votes. He joins Scottie Pippen of Chicago (932,912) at the starting forward spots for the East.
In the backcourt, the East will have Jordan, who led all vote-getters for a record seventh straight year, and Isiah Thomas of Detroit. Jordan, who has the highest scoring average in All-Star Game history with 21 points per game, received 1,035,824 votes. Thomas, a two-time All-Star MVP, received 397,747.
Utah placed two starters, guard John Stockton and forward Karl Malone, on the Western Conference team for the Feb. 21 game at Salt Lake City.
Stockton received 507,951 votes and will start in the backcourt alongside Clyde Drexler of Portland, who had 823,482.
The Western Conference will have Malone, who had 563,627 votes, and Charles Barkley of Phoenix (858,947) at the forwards and David Robinson of San Antonio (803,696) at center.
Eight teams are represented in the starting lineups for the two conferences.
Seven reserves will be chosen for each team by the coaches next week. The West coach will be Paul Westphal of Phoenix, whose team will have the best record in the Conference on Sunday's cutoff date to determine the All-Star coaches. The East coach is still to be determined, although Phil Jackson of Chicago is ineligible because he coached in last year's game.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB