The All-Star reserves were announced on Thursday, and while there were some snubs (there are always snubs), the players that made it were all deserving.
Well, almost.
To the surprise of many, Joe Johnson of the Brooklyn Nets made the roster for the East. The Nets have played tremendously well in the month of January to bring their record up to 20-23, but it’s still a losing record, and Johnson is averaging 15.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists on the season – not exactly off-the-charts stuff from a statistical standpoint.
The most notable omissions from the team were Lance Stephenson and Kyle Lowry. Stephenson, who has been a catalyst for the best team in the league – Indiana Pacers – is averaging 14.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists. Lowry has been the captain of the ship for the division-leading Toronto Raptors, averaging 16.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 7.6 assists, 2.2 turnovers and 1.6 steals. Both players appear to have the better resume than Johnson on better teams, so it is especially strange that coaches, of all people, made this particular decision.
Johnson heard the news and had this to say:
Very honored to be selected to NBA AllStar.
— Joe Johnson 4real (@TheJoeJohnson7) January 31, 2014
Patrick Patterson, a teammate of Lowry on the Raptors, was less than pleased with the voting results:
Comparing Kyle Lowry & Joe Johnson.. Kyle numbers are better & he’s on a winning team. So how is he not the obvious choice? #Raptors
— Patrick Patterson (@pdpatt) January 31, 2014
It’s a very fair question, really.
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James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.
Its obvious the reason Joe Cool was selected, is because Toronto already had a representative in DeRozan and IND already had 2 representatives.
Record should not be a main requirement for selection, but rather how much a player contributes to a team. Lopez was destined to be the Nets selection, until his fracture.
True that Joe had cooled off in the last few games, but he was the most consistent Net.
At end of season, Nets will be in 3rd place, anyway.
What was most unfair was that Kobe was selected by the Fans. Fortunately he won’t be able to play. There likely will be a replacement player in East too – There always are injuries.
Jerry, you are going on the assumption that the coaches knew DeRozan and Hibbert would be automatic shoe-ins, and that wasn’t the case. Coaches had to vote for those two as much as they voted for Johnson.
Oh, its fixed. Everyone on TNT had DeRozan and Hibbert, so the coaches knew they’d be in.
They had to vote in a top Center and someone from Toronto.