Well, thank God we can get on with our lives.

Vince Carter gave up his starting spot in the All-Star Game. Does this mean he's a good guy now?

If only it were that simple, like pro wrestling, when a bad guy suddenly "turns" and becomes a good guy in the blink of an eye. Vince put Michael Jordan in a headlock on Sunday just before tipoff, and made Jordan go out there in his place, and he is suddenly not selfish, not boorish, not stupid.

	Vince Carter was wrongly criticized for wanting to keep his starting spot in the East lineup.

Maybe he wasn't any of those things to begin with.

I understand we live in different times now, that part of the world of sports is the incessant talk culture, both on television and on radio. People are getting paid good money to just yak off the top of their heads about anything. I shouldn't take it personally. Vince shouldn't take it personally. But it's hard, I'm sure, to differentiate between earnest discussion and blowhards who only care about making it to the next commercial break before they're discovered to be the frauds they are.

It got tiresome hearing all the bleating from media types about what VC should do, that he didn't deserve to be on the squad because he has missed most of the season, that the "right" thing to do would be to step aside and let Jordan start. (Although, as my colleague Stephen A. Smith points out, you'd think one Tar Heel would do another Tar Heel a favor like that.) I don't care what Charles Barkley or anybody else says, getting voted to the starting lineup by the fans is an honor. Or at least, it should be. It has value. It means that you are one of the 10 people we most want to see on the floor if given a chance.

Fans aren't stupid. They know that Carter has played in 12 games. Anyone that can read or watch TV knows that this is Jordan's last season. They decided they would rather see Carter than Jordan. That didn't make them un-American. And Jordan, who has made three or four lifetimes worth of fortunes because of the fans, knew this better than anyone. That's why he wouldn't accept the charity of Allen Iverson or Tracy McGrady, who both offered to give up their starting spots to him ("It would have been an honor," AI told me last week), and why he shouldn't have accepted once Carter bowed to all the noise and changed his mind.

People are so hypocritical when it comes to Vince. We kill athletes all the time because they supposedly don't value education, that they're only in it for the money. But when Carter opted to attend his graduation in North Carolina on the morning of the deciding game of the Eastern semis two years ago -- missing nothing but a couple of hours of brooding in his hotel room -- he was roasted. We say players are mercenaries, and don't care about the cities in which they live. But Carter is vilified in some circles because he genuinely likes Toronto and would rather live there, quietly, than in New York or L.A. We say athletes care nothing about the fans, ignoring them at every turn. But Carter makes a decision because of the fans, and he's called selfish.

The only thing more stupid was hearing people, somehow, twist this into some kind of attack on Isiah Thomas. What the hell does Thomas have to do with this, other than knowing first-hand how much one is vilified when he has the temerity to be on the other side of the Jordan Phenomenon. And if he tried to convince Carter that it wouldn't do him much good in the long run to stand in the way of what everyone seemed to want -- everyone except Jordan, that is -- good for Thomas.

ALDRIDGE'S RANKINGS

THE TOP 10 1. Dallas 2. San Antonio 3. Sacramento 4. Indiana 5. Detroit 6. New Jersey 7. Minnesota 8. Portland 9. Phoenix 10. L.A. Lakers THE BOTTOM FIVE 25. Memphis 26. Miami 27. Denver 28. Chicago 29. Cleveland THE MIDDLE FOURTEEN 11. Utah 12. Boston 13. Houston 14. Philadelphia 15. New Orleans 16. Milwaukee 17. Washington 18. Orlando 19. New York 20. Golden State 21. Seattle 22. Toronto 23. L.A. Clippers 24. Atlanta

I ask this: If Jermaine O'Neal hadn't gotten too close to Kobe Bryant, after Jordan hit that spectacular fadeaway over Shawn Marion with three seconds left in the first overtime, if Jordan's shot had been the game-winner, and he'd won the MVP award, would anyone have remembered he'd started the game at all? That he missed his first seven shots? That he was 8-of-24 from the floor? Of course not, because it's not how you start, but how you finish, and if we don't know that after 15 years of watching MJ, we haven't been paying attention.

I wish Vince would have stuck to his guns. There are so few guys that take a position on anything. His sudden reversal was another bit of mawkishness that seemed prevalent on Jordan's last night in the All-Star sun. The whole evening seemed forced -- until MJ faded on the baseline. If we'd all stop worshiping at his altar and just appreciate what the man brings to the floor every night, we'd all be better off.

Around the League
With rookie J.R. Bremer firmly ensconced in the starting lineup at point guard, the Celtics are discussing a deal that would send Shammond Williams to Denver for Mark Blount. The Nuggets would also get a pick out of the deal. Meanwhile, everyone claims that Vin Baker is fine, but Gary Payton believes Baker's absence last week before the All-Star break might be similar to "panic attacks" Baker suffered while in Seattle. "It happened on the bus a couple of times," Payton recalled. ... Orlando and Indiana both are in the hunt for Kenny Anderson.

Nick Van Exel says he was in handcuffs for about 15 minutes last Saturday at the Players' Association party in Atlanta along with Rockets forward James Posey after they had words with a security guard. Only a union official demanding the players either be charged or released kept Van Exel from going to a police station. There was no apology, Van Exel says, but he believes the real victim was Indiana's Ron Artest, who was hundreds of miles away, not on the scene, as some media reports claimed Sunday and Monday. "I just feel bad for Artest, because he wasn't even there," Van Exel said. ... Former SuperSonics, Nuggets and Wizards head coach Bernie Bickerstaff will wind up in Charlotte and be the general manager of the WNBA's Sting. ... The Bucks are 12-4 after Wednesday's win over the Mavericks since Toni Kukoc returned to the lineup from a thumb injury. George Karl says Kukoc is his team's glue, and that Michael Redd has been sensational (a ridiculous 49 percent from the floor on 3-point attempts in the fourth quarter this season), but that the buck, so to speak, still stops with Milwaukee's old guard. "The three guys that are paid to win around here are me, Sam and Ray," Karl says. "It doesn't matter how we do it, or how many points we score. The only thing we're going to be judged on is if we win."

David Aldridge, who covers the NBA for ESPN, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.