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The good news: the Philadelphia 76ers will be represented at the All-Star Game in a few weeks. The bad news: only Joel Embiid made the game in a reserve role.
Thought Embiid’s relegation to the reserves was a travesty? A complete snub? Well, James Harden would like a word. Or, more accurately, two words.
“The disrespect,” Harden posted on Instagram after it was revealed he’d been left out of the All-Star Game altogether.
Joel Embiid chimed in with his own take.
“Y’all got some explaining to do @NBA,” Embiid tweeted.
That Harden missed out on an All-Star selection is borderline inexcusable. And if you ask teammate Tobias Harris, Harden was the biggest snub in this year’s All-Star Game:
The Truth Behind Harden’s Snub
Let’s start with the unassailable truth that Harden has been the second-most important player on the East’s second-best team for the last two months. And there’s a case to be made that, just as Embiid sustained the team during Harden’s absence, Harden has done the exact same when Embiid misses the occasional game/heart attack with foot problems.
Harden is putting up 21.4 points, 11.0 assists, and 6.4 rebounds this season with Philadelphia. Curious about who else is averaging 20-10-5 this season? Hint: it’s only one player. Another hint: he’s the betting favorite to take home his third-straight MVP.
The fact that Harden’s stats match Nikola Jokic, an All-Star starter, only scratches the surface. He leads the league in assists per game. His true shooting percentage is quietly the highest rate since his last in Houston.
In many ways, he’s lived up to Doc Rivers’ call for the former MVP to be Philadelphia’s “scoring Magic Johnson.”
But the most damning fact comes not from Harden’s Basketball Reference page, but rather from the league itself.
Harden is currently seventh in MVP ranking, per NBA.com.
Every other name on that list will appear in the All-Star Game this weekend. Seven of them were named starters. Harden is the first name that appears among the non-starters.
But the one number that worked against Harden: minutes. Harden’s only played 1249 minutes this season as a result of a lengthy foot injury back in November. Had he played just 100 more minutes (the equivalent of roughly three more games), he’d be an All-Star.
Are we really dinging Harden for not playing in three more games? Really?
Regardless, after Harden’s snub, criticism rained down from every corner of social media:
Morey Sounds Off on Embiid Snub
The Harden snub isn’t the only All-Star question mark raised by the league this season.
Last week, when Embiid was omitted from the starters roster, Sixers’ GM Daryl Morey voiced his displeasure with the voting process and media who kept Embiid on the sidelines rather than among the starters.
“Completely hosed once again,” Morey said on 97.5 The Fanatic. “This time, to your point, the perpetrators of the crime were the shameless media, who most of them have recused themselves because they don’t want the vote on something that affect players’ paychecks.”
The Sixers will have a shot to go scorched earth tonight against the San Antonio Spurs.
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