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Originally Published: February 18, 2007

With playmakers sidelined, will stars still dazzle?

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By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
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LAS VEGAS -- No Steve Nash. No Jason Kidd. No Allen Iverson.

No sleep for the guys who are playing.

No way can I ignore the injury absence of three legendary entertainers and the most epic string of parties in the history of the NBA's notoriously hedonistic All-Star Weekend and promise you a classic Sunday.

AP Photo/Kevork DjansezianIt's a good bet LeBron and Shaq would rather win a dance contest than the All-Star Game.

It's not that I'm trying to alarm you. I'm quite sure that basketball's claim to the best All-Star Game in sports won't be threatened no matter what happens at the Thomas & Mack Center.

But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little concerned.

Of course, I also freely acknowledge that I'm probably one of about two visitors to this tailor-made oasis of excess who has even stopped to consider what the actual game might look like.

Folks here are having too good a time to fret.

About anything.

"People act [wild] like this at every All-Star Game I've ever been to," Dirk Nowitzki said on the eve of making his first-ever ASG start. "I don't think [Vegas] is going to make that much of a difference."

Really?

Not even with a local tipoff time of 5 p.m. to further slice into everyone's Saturday night recovery time?

The greater concern, at least to me, actually has little to do with the hedonism and much more to do with the unavoidable shortage of make-things-happen little guys.

No offense to Yao Ming and All-Star rookie Carlos Boozer, who are also out because of injury, but neither has the sort of game to wow an All-Star audience.

Nash and Kidd?

Let's just say I subscribe to Bill Simmons' theory that "All-Star Games are always as good as the point guards."

If you do, too, you have to be somewhat discouraged to know that the best set-up man in each conference will be watching in street clothes.

Not that Nash or Kidd were about to feed my fears of some negative impact. In their trademark give-it-up fashion, both tried to convince me that Sunday's spectacle is going to be just fine without them.

First Nash: "I don't know if people can relate to this, but I sort of feel a little lost out there in All-Star Games because I always play [full-bore]. I never really play that kind of loosey-goosey style, so I always feel a little out of it. The foot's off the gas a little and it's hard for me to play like that."

Then Kidd, scoffing at the notion that the game has lost some luster with Iverson out, too, and Shaquille O'Neal threatening to play just a handful of minutes before giving way to Dwight Howard: "We're the oldest guys anyway."

Detroit's Chauncey Billups is another thirtysomething who seems to know his role for this one when he says: "I'm going to try to give the ball to the show people."

The good news?

There are indeed several showmen who did manage to avoid the injury plague. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tracy McGrady, Gilbert Arenas, Kevin Garnett and Dwyane Wade ... all of them know what to do with the ball. All can be playmakers when they want/have to be.

There are a few good subplots to monitor, as well, with Shawn Marion ranking as a potential MVP dark-horse candidate playing in front of his old UNLV friends ... and Carmelo Anthony's overdue All-Star debut finally putting the four studs from the 2003 draft together on the same floor for the first time (along with 2003 cohort Josh Howard) ... and the prospect of some legit opening-tap tension when Wade and Nowitzki slap hands.

Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty ImagesBryant won't face Kidd, who's out with an injury, but might soon call him a teammate.

"This is a great opportunity," Kidd contends, "for the youth of the NBA."

OK, J.

I hear you.

I'll try not to obsess over the fact that the only recognized point guard available to West coach Mike D'Antoni is a scoring point guard: Tony Parker.

I'll try to remember that it might benefit everyone, even me, to lighten up after a heavy five months so far.

After all the hubbub about the new synthetic basketball, a midseason switch back to leather and the Madison Square Garden fight night in between -- as well as the recent John Amaechi-Tim Hardaway firestorm -- it probably wouldn't hurt to ignore the injured list and ease up on our demands and expectations.

For once.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.