Sports Thread For 1/28/10: The Snubs That Should Have Been Subs

Al Horford is an important palyer for Hawks, but he wasn't that important enough to be on the All-Star team in my mind

The reserves where announced tonight for the NBA All-Star Game in Dallas. Only two guys really didn't deserve their place on the team.

For the EAST:
Al Horford making it over teammate Josh Smith and David Lee is an absolute joke. Coaches seriously haven't been watching the games if they thought Horford was worthy of an All-Star nod over a guy averaging 19 and 11. The only thing that you can clearly say Horford is better than Lee at is defense, but it isn't enough to choose him over the Knicks lone post presence. And the Smith/Joe Johnson combination are still the two most important players on the Hawks.

For The West:
If Chris Kaman missed as many games as Paul Gasol did, then no one would even be thinking of him. But if Chris Kaman didn't miss many games and still played well, then, he would not be thought of enough to be picked over the older Gasol. The latter is what actually happened.

As Kaman and many others have said, there truly needs to be a cutoff rule for number of games played in order to be eligible for the All-Star game. Gasol missing the amount of games he missed should not place him on this team over Kaman and Carlos Boozer, who has arguably been the key reason why the Jazz have gotten their act together a little better on the road.

One other notable tidbit for the selections this evening is the fact that Dwight Howard is really the only true center in this game. Tim Duncan and Amare Stoudamire may play the position occasionally, but everyone knows they are power forwards at heart.