Eddie Jordan to Coach All-Star Team

February 2, 2007 - 8:29am

Dave Johnson, WTOP Sports

WASHINGTON - It was a wild ride for the Wizards on Thursday.

Still reeling from a loss to the Raptors on Wednesday and the loss of Antawn Jamison to a knee injury, the team received welcome news that forward Caron Butler and head coach Eddie Jordan would be going to the 2007 NBA All-Star game in Las Vegas.

Butler who has has averaged 20 points, 8 rebounds, and close to 4 assists per game, was selected as a reserve for the Eastern Conference in a vote of NBA coaches. Jordan earned the right to coach the Eastern Conference after Miami beat Cleveland Thursday night.

The Cavaliers loss insures the Wizards will have the best record in the conference on Feb. 4. Detroit could actually catch the Wizards but Pistons coach Flip Saunders is not eligible to coach this year becasue he was the coach last year.

"It's a great honor it really is," Jordan says. "You don't want to get caught up in it while you are playing games but when it comes to reality it is exciting."

For Jordan it is another high mark in a basketball career that started on the playgrounds of Southeast D.C. Jordan always wanted to be a coach and was greatly influenced by John Paul Davis Jr. who coached him at Douglass Junior High.

For Butler it will be his first All-Star game. Butler joins point guard Gilbert Arenas on the team

"Over the last two years I really started thinking about the All-Star game. I realized I could become one of the elite players in the league if I accepted the challenge of the coaches," Butler said.

The franchise has previously had three All-Star coaches; Gene Shue in 1968-69, K.C. Jones in 1974-75, and Dick Motta in 1978-79. No Washington team has been in first place in the Eastern Conference this late in the season since Motta's 1978-79 squad finished the regular season with the Conference's top seed.

Wizards Associate Head Coach Mike O'Koren also earned the right to serve as the Head Coach of one of the teams in the 2007 Rookie Challenge during All-Star Weekend, featuring the league's top rookies against the NBA's top second-year players.

Dave Johnson, WTOP Sports

WASHINGTON - It was a wild ride for the Wizards on Thursday.

"It's a great honor it really is," Jordan says. "You don't want to get caught up in it while you are playing games but when it comes to reality it is exciting."

For Butler it will be his first All-Star game. Butler joins point guard Gilbert Arenas on the team

"Over the last two years I really started thinking about the All-Star game. I realized I could become one of the elite players in the league if I accepted the challenge of the coaches," Butler said.

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