Biggest ‘snubs’ from the 2021 NBA All-Star Game

Reserves were announced for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, and as always, there were some notable snubs.

With only 24 spots split between two conferences, not every deserving player can make the NBA All-Star roster. The league is as jam-packed with talent as it’s ever been, and even if the rosters were expanded to 14 or 15 players (as they totally should), there’d still be talk about who got “snubbed.” It’s just the nature of this beast.

However, because there were so many All-Star caliber players who missed the cut of this year’s ultra-competitive numbers crunch, we’d be remiss if we failed to acknowledge those names who were not voted in by the NBA’s 30 head coaches for one of the 14 reserve spots that were announced Tuesday evening.

In the Western Conference, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Paul George, Anthony Davis, Rudy Gobert, Chris Paul and Zion Williamson were named as reserves, joining Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James and Nikola Jokic. In the East, James Harden, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Ben Simmons, Julius Randle, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic joined the starting five of Kyrie Irving, Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.

As with any All-Star or awards conversation, if you say a guy got “snubbed,” you’d better damn well follow it up with whose spot he should’ve taken and why. So while we’ll still give shout-outs to deserving players who were left out in the cold, we’ll also determine whether they were truly snubbed (and if so, whose spot they should have) or whether their exclusion ultimately makes sense.

Obviously that kind of determination is ultimately objective, but that’s what you’re here for! To be mad about the selections that have been made (and probably what I will have to say about your favorite snub as well). So without further ado, here are the biggest snubs from the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, starting out West.