Point guards Deron Williams of Utah, Chicago's Derrick Rose and Boston's Rajon Rondo will make their All-Star Game debuts next month in Dallas, sources said Thursday.Josh Smith has not been quoted as saying the Eastern Conference are a bunch of "goddam phonies" but it'd be a reasonable sentiment given his performance this season.
Williams, Rondo and Rose top the list of reserves chosen by the league's coaches to participate in the Feb. 14 game at Cowboys Stadium. The names won't be made official until Thursday night, but Yahoo! Sports has obtained the list of reserves.
Besides Rondo and Rose, the East roster includes Boston's Paul Pierce, Toronto's Chris Bosh, Charlotte's Gerald Wallace and Atlanta's Joe Johnson and Al Horford.
The West includes the New Orleans' Chris Paul, the Lakers' Pau Gasol, Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant, Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki, Memphis' Zach Randolph and Portland's Brandon Roy.
Among the notable candidates left off the team are the Los Angeles Clippers' Chris Kaman, New York's David Lee and Denver's Chauncey Billups.
UPDATE (3:29pm): In my experience the only four-letter words Kevin Pelton uses are actually acronyms. Josh Smith's absence from the All-Star team inspired him to use consciously strong language at Basketball Prospectus: "snub."
4 comments:
One could argue that the Hawks do have two All-Stars, but neither of them are going to be featured in the game.
And I was already preparing to contend how Horford was one of the league's most underrated players. It appears I need to start making that case for Josh Smith.
I would probably argue that drafting Al Horford is the biggest cause of the Hawks making the playoffs three years running and am glad for him to receive this honor but come tip-off of the All-Star Game everyone will look around and wish that, for the purposes of that exhibition, Josh Smith were the second Hawk on the roster.
What a bummer. It's gotta be hard for him to have worked so much at changing his shot selection and have a career year and not get recognition.
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