Last week the All-Star Game starters were announced, and a few players felt burned by the selections.
Now the reserves have been announced, and the real snubs happen.
As a reminder, the NBA is trying to inject some life into this staid event by having LeBron James and Stephen Curry — the top vote-getters in each conference by the fans — named captains who will pick the All-Star teams. Playground style. Just one after the other, whoever they want from either conference (but not televised... boo), first from the pool of other starters selected by fans, media, and current players, then from the list of reserves selected by the coaches (those coaches had to choose two backcourt players, three frontcourt players and two wild-cards for each conference). Curry and LeBron can pick anyone — if Lebron wants to choose James Harden, he can.
Here are who the coaches chose to round out the rosters:
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Russell Westbrook
Klay Thompson
Damian Lillard
Jimmy Butler
LaMarcus Aldridge
Draymond Green
Karl-Anthony Towns
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Kyle Lowry
Victor Oladipo
John Wall
Bradley Beal
Kristaps Porzingis
Al Horford
Kevin Love
The Warriors become the first team to have four All-Stars in consecutive years.
There are four first-time All-Stars in there: Towns, Beal, Oladipo, and Porzingis.
So who got snubbed? The West was so deep there was just no way to get all the deserving guys in, but the biggest snubs are the Clippers’ Lou Williams (he has carried that team), Chris Paul of the Rockets (probably due to missed time), and the Thunder’s Paul George. Out East Andre Drummond was just off the board, as were Goran Dragic and Ben Simmons.
Guess I gotta start doing back flips after every point I score to get attention around here!
— Andre Drummond (@AndreDrummond) January 24, 2018
Lmao on to the next
Lol
— Lou Williams (@TeamLou23) January 23, 2018
Just as a reminder, the starters are, from the West, Stephen Curry, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins; and from the East Kyrie Irving, DeMar DeRozan, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid.
The All-Star Game is Feb. 18 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
