Let's face it, All-Star games, no matter the sport, are just exhibitions.
Even when a bonehead like MLB commissioner Bud Selig comes along and tries to make the actual athletic contest mean something, it rarely has much of an effect on the viewing public.
Unless, of course, your team finishes 10 games ahead of its competition in the World Series and doesn't have homefield advantage because Texas' Josh Hamilton rapped a meaningless RBI single in the ninth inning.
In the NBA, David Stern is actually a competent business man so you don't have to worry about David West nailing a jumper in the waning seconds of his league's All-Star game to give the Los Angeles Lakers homecourt advantage.
The game is what it is, a fun exhibition that lets you see the league's best playing pickup basketball that would make the folks in Harlem's Rucker League green with envy.
So, while we can all agree the game is meaningless, the honor is certainly not.
Being named an NBA All-Star is a big deal for players.
Whether it's a veteran like Shaquille O'Neal or first-timers like Jameer Nelson and Danny Granger, being labeled an All-Star is quite the complement.
On the other hand, missing the cut can be a hard pill to swallow.
So, with that in mind, let's look at the five biggest snubs for the 2009 NBA All-Star Game set for February 15 in Phoenix.
1. - Al Jefferson - Forward/Center - Minnesota Timberwolves
The Suns' O'Neal got his 15th bid ahead of Jefferson, who averages 22.7 points and 10.5 rebounds per game, one of only three NBA players averaging more than 20 points and 10 rebounds a night. Meanwhile, the 36-year-old O'Neal doesn't play in back-to-back games.
"I can tell you, Al's played like an All-Star,' Wolves coach Kevin McHale said after Thursday's morning practice. "He deserves to be an All-Star."
McHale is right but the Wolves' pedestrian 16-28 record and the fact that the game is in Phoenix likely doomed the former Mississippi high school star.
2. - Ray Allen - Guard - Boston Celtics.
If you enable Jefferson's snub by pulling the "team success card," how do you explain Allen's absence? The 13-year pro has been the reigning NBA champions' most consistent player this season, averaging 18.0 points per game and shooting nearly 42 percent from downtown. Clearly, Allen is considered a distant third in the "Boston three party" but he's every bit the All-Star as Garnett and Paul Pierce.
Fearing the snub, C's coach Doc Rivers vented before the reserve announcements were made on Thursday.
"It really would be (disappointing) because coaches all over the league talk about sacrificing," the coach told the Boston Herald before the reserves were named. "I might be venting for no reason, but I just get that sense they're (the league's coaches) being hypocritical because somebody who doesn't make it on our group (sacrifices). "(But) that's what they did. They voted for numbers instead of sacrifice, wins and efficiency."
Ouch!
3. - Carmelo Anthony - Forward - Denver Nuggets
Before suffering a non-displaced third metacarpal fracture on his right hand against Indiana on January 5, few would have been surprised if Anthony was voted in as a Western Conference starter. After missing 10 games, it seems like the Western Conference coaches forgot about him.
The two-time All-Star, who is averaging a team-high 21.1 points per game and is unquestionably one of the top 10 players in the game, has been cleared and will return to the court against Charlotte on Friday night. Since Anthony will be back in action a full two weeks before the All-Star game, a spot should have been saved for him.
4. - David Lee - Forward/Center - New York Knicks
The Knicks haven't had an All-Star since 2001, when Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell were both selected. Lee, who is tied with Orlando's Dwight Howard for the most double-doubles in the NBA this season with 34, deserved to end that drought.
Lee, who is averaging a career-high 15.7 points and 11.6 rebounds per game, has a Knicks team that has practically admitted their OK with losing while waiting for LeBron James in a couple of years on the outskirts of the Eastern Conference playoff race.
5. - Mo Williams - Guard - Cleveland Cavaliers
LeBron James casts quite the shadow in Cleveland and that likely cost Mo Williams a spot on the Eastern Conference All-Star team. James is so good, you tend to forget he plays with some pretty capable players and Williams leads that list.
Williams' teammates were outraged when he was overlooked.
"It's a tragedy," Ben Wallace told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. "I think it's an injustice. It's a fraud. We've got the best record in the league (actually the second best), and we've only got one guy going. You always make it the next year, after the year you were supposed to make it. It's a travesty and a sham and a mockery. It's a shamockery."
"It just shows the disrespect that basketball in Cleveland continues to get," James added. "It's definitely disrespectful that we continue to do work every year with nothing to show for it. They always say when you win, individual accolades will take care of itself. But sometimes it doesn't happen."
Williams, who is averaging 17.0 points and 4.1 assists per game in his first year in Cleveland, was more understanding.
"I've always been an underdog," he said. "I've had to fight my way and prove people wrong my whole career. It is what it is. It just fuels me, motivates me more and more."
01/30 13:30:14 ET
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