While some of you were unavoidably coerced into watching a game of American football on Sunday night, NBA coaches and Stein Line operatives were facing a deadline.

Reserve selections for the NBA All-Star Game were due at the league office today by 1 p.m. (EST). There are seven slots in each conference left to fill and the voting process, as of last season, has changed a bit. Which only gives voters and pretend voters more to consider.

The league notified teams again Thursday that, as introduced last January, it wants coaches picking the seven best possible candidates for Atlanta. The rules still call for at least two forwards, two guards and one center on each coach's seven-man ballot, but ...

SPECIAL OCCASION

The suggestion to commissioner David Stern is already out there, and loudly so. There have been numerous calls for Stern to create special roster spots to bring Michael Jordan and David Robinson to Atlanta as outgoing All-Stars. Only there's a problem. Robinson Jordan Problem A: Jordan doesn't want to be a 13th man, and I still don't know why folks want to force him to play in a game that doesn't interest him. Problem B: Robinson might not be the only Western Conference legend headed for retirement. Utah's John Stockton could well be in the midst of his final season at 40, and Stock would certainly be a candidate for one last All-Star moment if so. But who knows? Stockton hasn't announced his future plans and never gives hints anyway. Utah's Karl Malone is another fortysomething (OK, almost) facing similar uncertainty, except that Malone is leaning toward playing at least one more season. Yet again we say it, though: Who knows? Should it turn out that this was a last chance for Stockton or Malone to be an All-Star, they'd be just as deserving as MJ or Admiral Dave for a roster favor. The vote here, then? To be equitable, let's just take a pass on the idea of 13th men in the 52nd All-Star Game. We can say our farewells to these guys in the playoffs. And if you're worried that Jordan's Wiz won't make it ... there seems to be just as much chance that Jordan will keep playing anyway. Who knows?

Coaches are now encouraged to vote for a player at the position "he thinks is most advantageous for the All-Star team, not necessarily the one he plays most often during the season."

This is the new policy essentially because the NBA doesn't want to force the coaches to vote for undeserving centers, in an era where traditional pivot men are almost extinct. Last year, for example, Dirk Nowitzki was named by West coaches as the backup five, instead of thirtysomethings David Robinson or Vlade Divac. That created sufficient roster room for Chris Webber, Karl Malone, Peja Stojakovic and Wally Szczerbiak. It also led commissioner David Stern to choose Elton Brand, a 6-foot-8 power forward, as Shaquille O'Neal's injury replacement.

East coaches would have loved to make use of that provision today, but there really isn't a forward of All-Star stock out there who's tall enough to masquerade as a center. That's why Indiana's Brad Miller, Miami's Brian Grant and New York's Kurt Thomas have all received All-Star consideration to play behind 6-8 starting center Ben Wallace, thus further squeezing the worthy swingmen in a conference overflowing with them.

The other main rule for coaches, of course, is that they can't vote for players on their own teams. Following all of the above guidelines, this is how our theoretical coach's ballot would have looked.

The fans' East starters