In the Rotation: NBA Week 7

'Tis the season for a lot of things: roasting chestnuts, being bitten by Jack Frost, etc.

It's also the season for making wish lists. Whether you wish for world peace, a rebound in the economy, or a shiny new bike, nearly everyone has a holiday wish list made out by now.

NBA fans are no different. Whether it's wishing for an NBA record (Carmelo Anthony's 33 points in the third quarter last Monday), a hot start (Boston is a franchise best 22-2 to start the season), or a blockbuster trade (Jason Richardson to the Suns isn't exactly A.I. or Chauncey Billups switching teams, but is significant nonetheless), NBA fans have been wishing for, and receiving, a great NBA season so far.

But not every wish list is the same. While most lists are usually packed full of items you don't already have. My list is just the opposite.

In today's Starting Five, I break out my holiday wish list of five NBA things that I wish I'd never seen again.

Starting Five

1. No More Jump Balls

How silly is it that each game still starts with a jump ball? It never goes smoothly. Never. Either the ref throws the ball too high, not high enough, or someone ends up stealing the tip. We need to do away with it completely.

I suggest a good old fashioned "shoot for it." You take two starters, sort of like choosing who shoots the technical foul free throw, and put them at the top of the key to shoot three-pointers until someone misses. First player to miss, the other team gets the ball. It's that simple.

If we're being honest here, who wouldn't benefit from this? The teams have the luxury of having their best shooter heat up directly before the game starts. The fans have the privilege seeing a shooting display that will elicit "ohhs" and "ahhs," as well as generate a bit of excitement before the game even starts. And the league does away with the one aspect of the game, the jump ball, that the referees have the hardest time with.

It's a win-win-win situation. Yet when you turn on the games tonight, they will all surely start with some sort of botched jump ball situation where the end result is basically "screw it, we'll just play on from here."

2. No More Fan Voting For the All-Star Starters

I understand that this isn't exactly a ground breaking revelation, but it never gets old.

As if we needed further proof that the fans rarely get it right when selecting the all-star starters, Allen Iverson has enough votes as of right now to be a starting guard for the Eastern Conference. The same Allen Iverson that is averaging below his career averages in points, assists, steals, rebounds, and field goal percentage. The same Allen Iverson who ranks in the top 15 in just one statistical category (A.I. currently sits 14th in the league with 1.6 steals per game). The same Allen Iverson who trails Devin Harris in virtually every statistical category.

I realize that John Q. Basketball Fan would rather see an aging superstar with a big name start over an up-and-coming star, but nobody, not the league, not the players, not the fans, not the All-Star Game itself, benefits from having better players sit behind more popular players during the All-Star Game.

It's inevitable that at least one player who has no business even being an all-star will end up starting the game (I call it the Vince Carter rule), but it never becomes easier to accept.

3. No More Games in Standard Definition on the NBA League Pass

I don't understand how this works. Sometimes the games are being broadcast in HD locally, the League Pass has available HD channels that aren't being used, yet for some reason, subscribers of the League Pass can't get the game in HD.

At least once or twice a week I'll scroll through the list of games, only to be disappointed that the best game of the night is not available in HD. Then, in an attempt to kick me while I'm down, the announcers will without fail talk about how the game is being broadcast in crystal clear HD courtesy of some local sponsor.

Not from where I'm sitting.

It's a problem, and I hope the league finds a way to fix it sooner rather than later.

4. No More Talk about the Summer of 2010 This Season

We get it; there could be some big name free agents in July of 2010. Really, we do. In the meanwhile, we're going to crown two NBA champions, two MVPs, 10 first-team All NBA players, and so on.

I'm as guilty as anyone, writing just three short weeks ago about the potential free agent class of '10, but it needs to stop. The transaction game within the game has the real possibility of overshadowing the next two NBA seasons, and it would be a real blow to the league if people are so caught up in the LeBron sweepstakes that they forget to admire the immense talent that has the whole world buzzing in the first place.

It's already started, with the ratio of stories about LeBron headed to New York compared to the Cavs' record-breaking start sitting at about 50-to-1 right now. Hopefully as we near the stretch run and the races for MVP and playoff seeding heat up, the 2010 hot stove talks cool considerably.

If not, fans might miss out on some of the finer points of the game, you know, like who actually wins the next two NBA titles.

5. No More Job Security For Bad Coaches

Okay, so this is one wish that has already come true. Since last week, we've lost two more head coaches, Randy Wittman and Mo Cheeks, putting the tally at five NBA coaches that have lost their job already this season.

I mentioned last week that the record for coaching changes midseason is nine, so we are halfway there. And with Hang Time's Reggie Theus and Memphis' Marc Ivaroni just an inevitable four-game losing streak or embarrassing home loss away from being the next victim, we're pretty much already at seven.

That means that we're just three coaches away from setting the record. We can do this. The question isn't will we have 10 coaches fired? It is who will be the record-setting 10th coach fired this year?

Will it be an in-over-his-head first-time coach (this means you, Vinny Del Negro), or a savvy veteran coach who is obviously keeping his job based on reputation and not on success (Mike Dunleavy, Sr. anyone?).

It could be someone you wouldn't think about at first, maybe the coach of an underachieving playoff contender gets the ax to light a fire under the team with a month or two to go in the season (Byron Scott?).

Whoever the unlucky head man ends up being, he can take solace in the fact that even though he lost his job due to overall ineptitude, he was able to do so in record setting fashion.

In the Rotation: Darko Milicic

Finally, Darko shows signs of life. I don't care that he's seen a decline in virtually every major statistical category from a season ago; we've finally seen something impressive out of Darko.

I can't imagine how tough it is to rip an NBA jersey right down the middle like that, but I like to assume it ranks somewhere close to tearing a phonebook in half.

Darko will go down as the worst draft pick in NBA history and undoubtedly finish his career somewhere overseas, but his impressive feat of strength lands him in the rotation for the first (and almost certainly last) time in his underwhelming career.

Out of the Rotation: NBA Fan Night on NBA TV

I've held off for as long as I could, but I can remain silent no more. The combination of Gary Payton and Chris Webber has to rank as the all-time worst tandem in television history. They make Joe Buck and Tim McCarver look like Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon.

NBA TV has taken the Turner Sports approach of a host and two analysts having unscripted banter, put their own spin on it, and this happened.

TNT has the perfect mix of Kenny "The Jet" Smith and Charles Barkley taking shots at each other between the valid points they make.

On NBA TV, you've got Gary Payton, with one arm the desk and cocking his head back and to the left like he's taking direction from Kevin Costner's character in "JFK," making ridiculous statements. (This week's gem came when he said Tony Parker wasn't an elite point guard because he missed a potential game-winning jumper. For the record, Parker has shot 48% or higher in each of the last five seasons. Payton accomplished that only five times in his 17 NBA seasons.).

All the while, C-Webb is trying to talk over Payton to get the last word in, resulting in nearly every segment ending with the two of them laughing and forgetting what the topic was, then Ahmad Rashad uncomfortably sending it to commercial.

Unfortunately for the NBA, this Tuesday night train wreck has become, for better or for worse, must-watch television for all the wrong reasons.

Inactive List: You Decide: Glen Davis or Kevin Garnett

In case you missed it, here's what happened: during a timeout Kevin Garnett ripped into Glen Davis to the point that it ended with Davis in tears at the end of the bench. Here's the video.

However, I'm completely torn on who should be made inactive after that exchange.

On the one hand: why the hell is Kevin Garnett berating his teammates in front of everyone with a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter? Yeah, he's an intense guy, or he wears his emotions on his sleeve, or whatever. Call it what you want, but it's completely classless to rip a teammate like that on the floor. Take issue with him in the locker room, or at film session, or somewhere where 20,000 people and infinite TV cameras aren't watching you treat your teammates like garbage.

On the other hand: Glen Davis is a grown man! How on earth can you stand there and listen to someone belittle you to the point where it causes you to burst into tears without telling him to stop? At no point, in any walk of life, is it acceptable to have another grown man yell at you in public and respond by putting a towel over your head and crying.

I can't decide whose behavior is more worthy of this week's inactive list, so I'm leaving it up to you, the reader.

The question is simple: who should be made inactive this week, Glen Davis or Kevin Garnett?

Leave your answer in the "comments" section and we'll let the fans decide who spends the week shamed by being put on the inactive list.

It's not as much responsibility as, say, voting for the all-star starters, but at least there's a chance we'll get it right.

Be sure to check back at Sports Central every Monday to see who cracks Scott Shepherd's rotation as he breaks down what is going on around the NBA.