Josh responds to All-Star snub

[azuresou1]

Taken from his blog http://jsmoove.net/blog/?cat=1

What’s up yall? First off I want to say congratulations to my teammates Joe Johnson and Al Horford for their selections in the 2010 All-Star game. They both are well deserving and will represent the organization well. Knowing that we at least got 2 in made me feel a little better but I was a little dissapointed intially when I didn’t make it. The coaches made their selections which I do respect, so I have to get in the gym, keep working hard, and do the best that I can to warrant a selection next year. It’s always next year. While it would be nice to be there, I put my team first and made it about “WE” not “ME” and that has lead us to be the #1 team in the division. The team success is far more important than individual accomplishments. I learned as a young man to not worry about things that you can’t control and this is one of those situations. I want to thank all of my fans for the votes, the encouragement, and just being there for me. I love you guys to death and please keep up the support. This WILL be my motivation for the rest of the season.

Glad to see that he's taking it well.

[raleigh]

For all the talk about him being a "malcontent," he seems classy off the court.

[LL Cool Scott]

I've met him twice and he's about the nicest, most polite PERSON (not athlete) I've ever met. And he had no reason to be nice to me. He's a great guy and my favorite player since Mookie, and the fact that Al Horford made it over him is B*****!

I love Al also - but my vote for 1st half team MVP is Josh right now. I hope Iverson gets injured or pulls out.

[raleigh]

I don't think the coaches voted for Al over Josh. I imagine the reasoning was more Gerald Wallace over Josh, in which case they made the right decision.

[evildallas]

This year they seemed to make a big deal of position representation on the bench. As such it seems that Al beat out Noah, Perkins, O'Neal, Bogut (record doomed him), and Lopez (record really doomed him). Bosh and Lee were listed as F, so I'm sure that is how coaches were told to approach them. Iverson starting might have cost one of the 2 wildcard spots that should have been available, but it is likely one of the wildcards would have gone to a guard anyway. At forward, the deserving forwards were impacted by the election of Garnett to start in a non-deserving season, but there is little that can be done about that. In a perfect world, Chris Bosh would have been starting and Crash, Josh, and Pierce would be the backup forwards. It's hard to argue Josh over any of those 3 because they've all had good stats and been very important to their respective teams which have all reached .500 and would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. If Lee, Granger, or another F from a losing team had made it ahead of Josh then I would be irate, but that isn't the case.

The only outrage I have is toward tv personalities that dismiss Josh as not deserving in order to lobby for David Lee. No offense to David Lee, but 8 games under .500 is a major strike in my opinion. His stats playing at C are impressive because he is so undersized, but they aren't moving the needle enough to be an all-star in my opinion.

[Damu]

When you do things the right way and keep the right outlook things usually fall your way. I have a feeling Josh will be playing in the game this year somehow someway!

[ATL DirtyBird]

Glad hes handling it well off the court but im way more interested to see how he responds to it on the court. I expect good things. Josh is our MVP and thats all that matters.

[DeShaunRed]

(Applause)

To be honest, I didn't think he would respond to it (the snub) in such a calm manner. With this in mind, Josh's numbers should skyrocket next year and let the coaches know how valuable and All-Star worthy he is.

Kudos to Josh for handling this matter very well.