MBA at the Halfway Point -- Season 41

NEXT BRACKET
-- Sacramento at San Jose for first of two consecutive home-at-home meetings which may decide a playoff spot.
-- Seattle at Oklahoma City in first of two straight home-at-homes. Stampede needs at least one of these games.
-- Milwaukee at Charleston in a first- vs. second-place battle in the East.
-- Philadelphia at Chicago in first of two home-at-homes with both teams coming off big victories.
-- Los Angeles at Dallas in cross-over contest that could put Demons back in playoff hunt.






FINAL ALL STAR GAME NOTE: Oklahoma City's Yipeekayee Masterfalcon's 6 made treys in the All Star Game move him up to a tie for third place all time on the All Star Game career list with Ching-Chong Chung. He now has 17 treys (and forever will due to his retirement after this season), trailing 1. Cheetos Jones, 24 2. Naf Naf 19 3. Mamadou Zongo 18.

41st All Star Game and recent MVPs

The 41st All Star Game Teams Announced

ALL STAR GAME FACTS
-- Only two players who started the Season 40 game return as starters this season...Colquitt Croix and Pippi Pippistrelli.

-- 12 of the 20 All Stars are back from last season's game

-- Just two rookies made the All Star Game, both from Chicago...Santo Thomas and Norman Conquest

-- The oldest player in the game is Hall of Fame center Max Payne of Oklahoma City...in his 16th season

-- Payne's 10th All Star Game appearance ties him with Uncle Bob Masterson and Mamadou Zongo for most all time

-- Ginger Vampire and Naceg Gecan join a list of 30 players who have played in at least 6 All Star Games

-- The East has won 25 times and the West has won 15

-- Since Season 34, when the West won, the teams have alternated victories...if this pattern continues, the West would win this game

-- Three of the last four games have been won by just two points...the exception was Season 38 when the West won by scoring a record 106 points.

-- Conspicuous by their absence: Hall of Famer Hrundi V. Bakshi of Los Angeles, Chicago's Reckless Abandon, Charleston's B. Quiet, Philadelphia's Diss Reflexia, and of course, the injured Naf Naf of Charleston.

-- The most difficult position to make the All Star team has shifted to West Division forward, where 6 players exceeded 20 GVP...the two who missed out were: Tea Time Typhoo of Seattle (22.8) and Kyle Sherwood of Sacramento (22.4).

-- Other players who exceeded 20 GVP but did not make the team were: Steve Carter of Sacramento (20.4), Naf Naf of Charleston (21.1), and rookie Poodle "Stix" Jackson of Philadelphia(20.4).

-- The All Star Game asterisk added to their cards brings the following players that much closer to the Hall of Fame (10 honors needed): Beezow Bop-Bop (7), Naceg Gecan (7), Pippi Pippistrelli (7), Ginger Vampire (7), and Yipeekayee Masterfalcon (8). Masterfalcon is retiring after this season but still has time to make the Hall this season or via the Veteran's Committee after retirement.

-- The addition of his 10th All Star Game asterisk gives Hall of Famer Max Payne 18 lifetime honors, pushing him past Stu Nod and Link Lennex in the Hall of Fame rankings and tying him for sixth greatest player all time with Boone Doggle and Mamadou Zongo.

Season 41 Retirements

A record 26 MBA players announced their retirements, including the great Hrundi V. Bakshi of the Los Angeles Big One.

Tyler lost 8 players to retirement, including 5 starters.
Dave lost 10 players, with 5 of those being starters.

Seattle was the lone team to escape the retirement cube of chance.
Charleston and Milwaukee each lost three players, but two of the three, in Milwaukee's case, were starters.
Los Angeles and Chicago joined Milwaukee in losing two starters.

We will go over this list in more detail at another time.
However, we did go back and check on retirement numbers per season ever since the league began retiring players in Season 6. This is by far the highest number of retirements in any one year. Only five other times has the number of retirements hit the 20 mark, with the highest prior to this season being 22.
Of course, 8 of the retirements this season came from the Cut Pile, which softens the blow considerably for the loss of talent.

Season 6 -- 10
Season 7 -- 9
Season 8 -- 15
Season 9 -- 20
Season 10 -- 13
Season 11 -- 14
Season 12 -- 16
Season 13 -- 15
Season 14 -- 15
Season 15 -- 15
Season 16 -- 13
Season 17 -- 20
Season 18 -- 18
Season 19 -- 17
Season 20 -- 9
Season 21 -- 19
Season 22 -- 14
Season 23 -- 13
Season 24 -- 13
Season 25 -- 17
Season 26 -- 17
Season 27 -- 17
Season 28 -- 21
Season 29 -- 15
Season 30 -- 12
Season 31 -- 13
Season 32 -- 17
Season 33 -- 22
Season 34 -- 14
Season 35 -- 20
Season 36 -- 13
Season 37 -- 16
Season 38 -- 11
Season 39 -- 15
Season 40 -- 19
Season 41 -- 26