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What are some of the weirdest All Star non inclusions you remember? Luka this year is kind of weird, Booker had several snubs, Pau Gasol as well early on. What are your examples?

Steph Curry in 2013, Gus Williams in 1980 (how often do leading scorers on a back-to-back finalist and a reigning champion not make an All-Star team?), Kevin Johnson has a few of those, Lillard in 2016 and 2017, Dirk in 2001. The last one was particularly egregious to me; Dirk was leading an upstart Mavs to a very good record and yet old guys like Divac (10/8!) and D-Rob, and a young crazy Sheed who was picking up technicals left and right made the team over him. I guess at that time voters saw Finley as the leader and best player on the Mavs, which really was not the case that year.

Zach Randolph with the Blazers.

Steph in 2013 was egregious not just because he didn't get in, but the fact that David Lee made it instead when anybody with eyes could tell who was the best player on that team. Sometimes coaches make bizarre choices

jjgp111292 wrote:Steph in 2013 was egregious not just because he didn't get in, but the fact that David Lee made it instead when anybody with eyes could tell who was the best player on that team. Sometimes coaches make bizarre choices

This is the one that came to my mind as well. It was bizarre and frustrating in the moment, and not I suppose it remains an important "moment" in recent basketball history as it is Steph Curry's coming out party resetting what people thought was possible with the 3, and what accolades did Curry get that year? None.

In the year where the thing that would transform the game of basketball crystalized into one avatar, mainstream media didn't even recognize Curry as an all-star.

Amazing.

Now I do think we should say that Curry came on strong as the year went along and so the guy we saw at the end of the year wasn't the season that the coaches were looking at, but that doesn't mean it was a reasonable choice when it was made. It made them seem very out of touch.

2004 Elton Brand

At the All-Star Break he was averaging 20 PPG | 12 REBS | 4 APG | 2 BLKS | 59% TS | +7% rTS

Clippers were hovering around .500 at the time, but because they had the stained reputation of the being the joke of the NBA, the basketball public and NBA coaches were continually dismissive of Elton Brand's production.

The fact that Brand is only a 2x All Star is a bit ridiculous especially every other year there was a notably lesser player getting the All Star nod over him simply because he played on Donald Sterling's Clown Show franchise which gave him bad basketball PR.

Jimmy Butler in 2022-23 was pretty goofy, especially considering he ended up All-NBA Second Team at the end of the season. Like, we know Playoff Jimmy was a different animal, but his regular season production was already more than sufficent.

In 2006, Gilbert Arenas was averaging 28ppg on a 5th seeded Wizards team and was mysteriously left of the all-star team. He later was added in as an injury replacement. For addded context, he made All-NBA 3rd team that season.

Tim Hardaway 1995. Sprewell got in but Hardaway should have also and even started.

I find his myth fairly overstated so he is not a huge snub for me, but 93 petrovic making all nba 3rd team yet missing all star remains odd

Monte Ellis 2011 or 2010
1 of those years.

kdawg32086 wrote:Zach Randolph with the Blazers.

When your team is nicknamed the Jailblazers and you are one of their most notorious drug abusers, it's not actually that much of a surprise.

91 Pippen

I mean, whoever got jobbed for Kobe in 2015 or 2016 probably wins by default. I'm not sure there has ever been a worse all-star relative to their performance on the court, so it follows that whoever missed out was the most hard done by.

One_and_Done wrote:I mean, whoever got jobbed for Kobe in 2015 or 2016 probably wins by default. I'm not sure there has ever been a worse all-star relative to their performance on the court, so it follows that whoever missed out was the most hard done by.

This means, I believe, Lillard in 2016

One_and_Done wrote:I mean, whoever got jobbed for Kobe in 2015 or 2016 probably wins by default. I'm not sure there has ever been a worse all-star relative to their performance on the court, so it follows that whoever missed out was the most hard done by.

You forgot Yao Ming 2011 but he at least didn't take an actual All Star place in the game itself

durantbird wrote:

One_and_Done wrote:I mean, whoever got jobbed for Kobe in 2015 or 2016 probably wins by default. I'm not sure there has ever been a worse all-star relative to their performance on the court, so it follows that whoever missed out was the most hard done by.

You forgot Yao Ming 2011 but he at least didn't take an actual All Star place in the game itself

An injured player who doesn't play would be less negative to your team's chances than Kobe in 2015 or 2016. Normally if a player is killing you that much on both ends you bench him. That wasn't possible though because 'it's Kobe, he has to play'.