Imagine that you’re working at an office—for some of you this will not be very hard. For the first while you work there, your boss stops you in the hall from time to time to say things like, this is what you do, when you run point on a big project.

In meetings sometimes he’ll stop to point at you and say, Kyle, (in this scenario your name is Kyle) this is what you do, when you’re running an important project. People start to know who you are.

It takes a while, but the day finally comes. Your boss comes in and tells you you will be running point on an important project. You do a great job, and everybody is really excited about it. Look at this guy we got, they say. Check out Kyle. Check out Kyle’s guns.

The next day doesn’t go quite as well. Your boss comes in and tells you you’re off the project.

The next day he shows up and says, okay, I need you to spend nearly as much time as you were spending on the project before, but this time you’re going to be playing shooting guard, I mean, doing graphics for it.

You don’t know anything about graphics, but you open up MS Paint, draw some stick figures, and it’s fine. You’re contributing a little, anyway.

The next day, you’re drinkng coffee and the boss comes in, grabs your coffee mug, shatters it against the wall, and shouts "NON! SACRE BLEU!"

You’re off graphics. You wonder why he’s shouting at you in French.

The next day he comes in and tells you to do…something…with the project. He waves his hands in the air vaguely, like a cat fighting a ball of yarn. He leaves you with that.

That’s Rag-Dolling.

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The Mavericks big German will make his 11th straight All-Star game this season. Despite averaging career lows since his rookie season (FG%, 3FG%, Points), the Coaches around the association voted Dirk in to represent the 2010-2011 World Champs within the main event.

Although Dirk Nowitzki has made 11 appearances, he was never named an All-Star starter throughout his career.

Last week, Rob Mahoney said Dirk's slow start should cost him the All-Star berth and Dirk agreed, but Marc Stein mentioned on the Ben & Skin show that Dirk would have no choice. Players like him have always received the benefit of the doubt and have been voted in because of their reputation. He also mentioned the NBA Champs shouldn't be left out of the All-Star Game.

Turns out that Marc Stein was right. It can be questioned if Dirk is too thrilled about the nomination, because he could have used that weekend off and surely wanted to send a message to coaches not to select him with his statement.

Anyway: Congrats and don't play too much!

As Mark Followill noted, it's the 7th time in NBA history that the defending Champ has had one All-Star representative.

The complete roster can be found here.

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No off-season move was given a more apathetic glare from Dallas fans than the Mavericks acquiring of Vince Carter. The former All-Star and somewhat poster boy for not making most of his physical gifts, Carter arrived in Dallas with a collective sigh and a shrug of the shoulders. The Mavericks two-guard problems have been well documented and Carter, on the surface, appeared to be nothing more than a flashy stopgap providing more headaches than productive minutes.

Even with that reputation, Zach Lowe wrote before the season on how Carter could potentially surprise some fans if placed on a good team:

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What the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets said 
after Game Twentysix of the Perfect Season.

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The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center, 105-95. Dirk Nowitzki led all scorers with 25, on 11-20 of shooting, and moved past Adrian Dantley for 21^st on the all-time scoring list. One-time Mav (sort of ) Rudy Fernandez led the Nugs with 17.

The Mavs rode an impressive first half, as usual, into a second half where they did, again, not as much as you’d hope. After scoring over 30 each of the first two quarters, they had 23 in the 3^rd and 18 in the 4^th, a trend that has become all too common. This time, however, thanks to some (thankfully) expected shooting from Dirk Nowitzki, and some timely contributions from Vince Carter, the lead never really shrunk into dangerous territory.

Likewise, the Mavs defense wasn’t necessarily better than it has been, but the Nuggets, small as they are, weren’t quite the force on the boards the Mavs have gotten used to, and couldn’t take advantage of some open shots. And so the Mavs not only survived, but thrived.

Bullets:

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WHO: The Denver Nuggets host the Dallas Mavericks

WHAT: First game back after a nice little break.

WHERE: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO

WHEN: 8:00pm CT

HOW: FSSW | League Pass

THE STORY: The first time these two teams met, the Nuggets put the Mavericks in their place. Since then Dallas has found some defensive consistency and Denver has fallen off a bit. Tonight they face each other after both falling on a three-game losing skid. Dallas will still be without Jason Kidd, and Denver will be missing their centerpiece, Danilo Gallinari, as well as Timofey Mozgov. Should be a decent game, since it's must-win for both teams. Stop by Denver Stiffs for Nuggets coverage.

Don't lose this one!