Gilbert Arenas doesn't know who Jose Calderon is

Gilby might know Jose better by his online poker handle, SpanishFly8.

An excerpt from his award-winning blog:

On the East side, I don’t know if there were any big snubs. I mean, some people wanted Jose Calderon. Jose Calderon? Who? Come on man, this is All-Star, people. When I’ve seen some of the names that are being thrown around on the ticker as snubs, it’s killing me. I understand Calderon has the best assist-turnover ratio in the league, but you know what’s funny? All back-up point guards have the best assist-turnover ratios. Screw it, Kevin Ollie should be an All-Star then! For like five or six years, Ollie was No. 1 in assist-turnover ratio!

Kevin Ollie's best season, in '02-'03 split between the Bulls and Pacers: 6.5 points, 3.5 assists, 0.9 turnovers, .451 FG%, .753 FT% in 23.1 minutes a game.

Jose Calderon in '07-'08: 12.4 points, 8.9 assists, 1.6 turnovers, .533 FG%, .921 FT% in 31.6 minutes a game.

Did I really need to look all this up? Was anyone nodding along when Patient Zero compared Calderon to a guy who's played for 289 different teams? Of course, Gilbert Arenas doesn't value assist/turnover ratio because his is usually hovering around 1:1.

An All-Star is an All-Star! He’s playing at a high level. That means, if you take him off the team, that team should fall down if he’s that one guy. An All-Star means that he is dominating the game of basketball. It’s not even about numbers necessarily, it’s about dominating.

Wages of Wins says Calderon contributes more to wins than Chris Bosh. Without him, they'd kiss a third of their wins goodbye. That sounds like dominatin' to me. Dominatin' the beautiful game of basketball.

I could probably say that Richard Jefferson got snubbed maybe Josh Smith too. His 18 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks puts him at No. 14. Richard Jefferson is No. 13. Turkoglu is No. 15. But, El Calderon? Come on.

It ain't about numbers. Except look at J-Smoove's numbers. And how cool is his nickname? Almost as cool as Tough Juice. Calderon doesn't have a fun nickname. Maybe if he did he would dominate. He's Spanish, right? Let's call him El Calderon! Oh, fuck. Gilbers beat me to it. Think he could find Spain on a map? Or Toronto? Or Australia?

I’ve been loving the way he’s been playing for the last two years. When he first came into the league he was a little timid and scared to shoot the ball, but he’s taking over that team. But All-Star? He’s about 20 years away from being an All-Star.

Taking over the team. But he ain't dominating. Just taking over. But an all-star? A star? And all? He used to not shoot all the time. How you going to play in this league 'less you put it up there every time you get the ball? You ain't if you want to make $11 million. Blogger Zero got to the second round of the playoffs once. He shot .373 from the field and .273 from the arc. Dominating!

This is the difference between Antawn and Caron stepping up with me out and Calderon stepping up with T.J. Ford out: Antawn is second in the league in double-doubles and there’s only five players in the league averaging 20 and 10 – he’s one of them. There’s Dwight Howard, Al Jefferson, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh and Antawn. Four of those five are All-Stars and their teams are winning. Caron is playing at a high level. He’s taking over the game when he’s been playing – All-Star. Calderon is managing a team. If he was up for Rookie All-Star, Sophomore All-Star … BOOM … he’d get in. He might even be MVP! But for the big show? The big game? No.

More numbers. But these are dominating numbers. Double-doubles are important. Lots of assists, low turnovers and efficient shooting are boring. Boring like folding with a pair of 4s. I mean, Calderon might be the MVP of games he is ineligible to play in, but we're talking about the Big Show! There's going to be slamma jamma dunks going on. Women, children and European point guards better get out of the way.

You know what? I’m sorry people. I think I’m biased because my team was fifth in the Eastern Conference and I was averaging 29, five and five and I got snubbed off the All-Star game. So maybe I’m a little biased. I was in that Larry Brown era, so, my fault. You know what? Calderon might have been an All-Star. I can’t look at my situation and judge everybody else’s situation in the All-Star game. I guess my 29, five and five and being in fifth place wasn’t good enough at the time.

Gilbonzo got snubbed once. Larry Brown was to blame. And so is Jose Calderon. He has good numbers. But numbers don't matter. Except they do.