The NBA All-Hype Team

Hype. It's a horrible thing.

I will never forget how JaMarcus Russell was hyped into a No. 1 pick, while Heisman winner Troy Smith was drafted in the sixth round.

But no league is more filled with hype than the NBA. If you have a good half-season, you can turn that into a franchise-killing contract within months.

The players below are listed because the attention they get is very disproportional to the talent they display.

You'll notice that not a single player below has a championship ring.

The reasons for the hype will be explained with the player—usually an award given, a crazy contract, an All-Star selection, or just too much attention compared with what they have produced.

Note: I have no personal rancor towards any of the players below.  Some of them are among my favorite players, so take personal prejudice out of the equation.

Without further ado, the NBA All-Hype team.

PG: Gilbert Arenas

Gilbert had a magical late 2006 season, in which he made several dramatic buzzer beaters and had several 50-point games.

Since then, what has he done? Three things. Get injured, not get better, and sign a $111 million dollar contract.

I love Gilbert as a player, and I think its best for the NBA if he comes back to his original form. But the longer he stays out, the more it looks like he peaked in that magical stretch in early 2006, and has nowhere to go but down.

The hype? Well, he's got what many D.C. sportswriters have called a "franchise-killing contract."

Why did he get it? Was it the multiple surgeries? What is the bad chemistry he created with players like Etan Thomas? Was it one missed playoffs and one stinkbomb of a playoffs?

With the Wizards winless, and Agent Zero nowhere in sight, you have your starting point guard for the All-Hype team.

SG: Ben Gordon

Where to start with Ben Gordon? A guy that frequently lives and dies (dies MUCH more often) by his jump shot.

He turned down a HUGE contract—a $58 million, six-year deal. Did I mention he turned it down after his third year in the league?

Where does he get the gall? The Bulls had one sweep over the hapless Heat, and suddenly Gordon thinks he deserves more than $10 million a year.

For a guy who offers nothing but shaky jump shooting, this is ridiculous.

Even more so than Luol Deng—who came dangerously close to making this list for his outrageous demands, and gives his team fewer points and slightly more rebounds than Gordon.

Now Gordon is coming off the bench, which he has done since turning down his offer, and his stats have gone down every year.

Due to Ben's hype of himself, he earns himself the starting job on the All-Hype team.

SF: Kevin Durant

This is where it gets dicey. Do I think Durant will be a great pro? Probably. Will he be one of the most dynamic players in the next few years, assuming the whole Sonics/OKC thing doesn't destroy his morale?  Sure.

But right now, he's shooting too much and not accurately enough. More than that, he was named Rookie of the Year last year out of nothing but hype.

Compare his stats to Al Horford's—a player who I don't like nearly as much as Durant. 

Durant has twice as many PPG (20.3 vs. 10.1) but on nine fewer shots per game (17.1 vs 8.2).  Durant also was the only scoring option for the hapless Sonics last year.

Horford was a much better rebounder, and was an integral part of a Hawks team that made the playoffs and took the eventual NBA champions to a seventh game.

I'm not saying Durant didn't deserve it, but it seemed like the award was his to lose the day Oden was lost for the season—and unless he shot 20 percent for the year, he wasn't going to lose it.

That's not the way awards should be given—unless, of course, you believe the hype.

PF: Elton Brand

A former number-one pick that has done absolutely NOTHING to help his team contend. Sure, you can say he's never been on a good team—but a great player, especially your No. 1 pick, should be able to make you a good team by himself.

After being traded to the Clips, he proceeded to get an offer matching the Heat's $82 million dollar offer.

So what has he done since his big payday?

He did help the team go one one extended playoff run, which was the best in the team's history. I'll give him that.

Then he got hurt, and played only eight more games for the Clips.

What made the hype machine really kick into gear was his trade to the Sixers.

He was immediately supposed to bring a Sixers team that gave the Pistons fits into championship contention.

Except, just like this year's Minnesota Vikings, they look good on paper, but that's it.

After getting his close to $80 million dollar contract, Brand has responded by helping his team start 3-5, and the lowest PPG by far of his career.

C: Yao Ming

Yao gets hyped like no one else on this list. He's pretty much an automatic lock for starting center on the Western All-Stars.

Why? He hasn't played more than 57 games since 2005, and he's not getting any younger.

He also has a tendency to miss shots that people six inches shorter can make. He gets some credit because he's got a decent jumper—but then again, if you were 7'6", why would you stray far from the basket?

He's never averaged more than 40 minutes per game.  The closest he came was averaging 37.2 last year—a year that, oh yeah, he only played 55 games.

Also, for someone who is his height, his career rebounding average (9.2) is nothing short of pedestrian. He's only averaged double-digit rebounds twice in his career.

Of course, we all know he's never made it out of the first round.

Sorry Houston, but if you're banking on a Yao who just came off an Olympic run to get you out of the first round...good luck.

Bench

Boris Diaw

Besides owner Robert Sarver, no one has done more to hurt this Phoenix team than Boris Diaw. The team lives and dies by his jumper. Since he won the Most Improved Player Award, he has been nothing but a beacon of inconsistency for the Phoenix Suns.

He always gets lauded as a player that can play any position, but he can't do anything particularly well.

He's got a decent shooting percentage, but his free-throw shooting is atrocious, and you want a forward to be able to penetrate and get to the line, not shoot contested jumpers.

He doesn't rebound well, especially for someone his size, and his assists (which he gets a lot of credit for) aren't that spectacular either.

Since his award, he continues to get credit as a good player, but his PPG has declined, even as Phoenix has needed him to take up some of Marion's offense.

Greg Oden

Look, I love Greg Oden. Watching him on the court the other night, I saw a physical specimen unseen since Shaq in the early 2000s. Unlike Shaq, he's defensively minded, which is what his team needs.

I think if he can ever stay healthy, he will be a great asset to what could become a great Portland team.

And I realize that a certain amount of hype comes with being a No. 1 overall pick.

But it doesn't warrant Greg Oden's first points of his career being the No. 7 best play of the night on SportsCenter. Are you kidding me? It was a dunk, and not a particularly good one at that.

The fact that every single point he scores for a while is going to get top billing is what earned him the roster spot on the All-Hype Team.

Rashard Lewis

What, oh what, has Rashard Lewis ever done to deserve the contract he's gotten?

He plays forward and stands 6'10", but he's never averaged over seven rebounds a game, and that was seven years ago.

He's never averaged more than a block per game.  And for someone who's supposed to be a scorer, a career high of 22.4 PPG, and a career average of 16.8 doesn't exactly inspire the masses.

The fact that he manages to stay healthy actually hurts his case, because he has no excuse for pedestrian numbers.

I don't begrudge a man for making a living, and I doubt it's his fault he got such a hufe contract.

But hype is never asked for, it is just given. And given his giant contract and mediocrity throughout his career, Lewis has earned his spot.