I don’t agree with LeBron James on really anything. I’m what people would call a LeBron troll. I will always believe that Michael Jordan is the GOAT, and there’s nothing that LeBron can do that will change my mind. With that being said I have to put away my troll fingers, and agree with his take.
Since college Devin Booker didn’t get the credit that he deserved. He was riding the pine on Kentucky as he was the backup to Aaron Harrison. As someone who would consider themselves very knowledgeable about basketball I don’t even know who the fuck that is. I had to look up his Wikipedia to see that he is playing in the Euroleauge now. Imagine starting that scrub before starting Devin Booker.
Booker is then selected 13th by the Suns, and to put this lightly the Suns have been a shit show. Other than James Dolan, Robert Sarver might be one of the worst NBA owners. Booker has put up great stats since entering the NBA, but everyone would say empty stats, or he’s not a winner, and lets see him put up these numbers on an actual winning team. Well the Suns are now a winning team. They have somehow pulled their heads out of their asses, and have a competent team around Devin Booker. They drafted well with Deandre Ayton, Cam Johnson, and have made smart trades. They traded for Chris Paul this offseason and a trade that I don’t know if a lot of NBA fans know of is when the Suns traded for Mikal Bridges. The 76ers originally drafted Bridges, but traded for Zhaire Smith, and a 2021 Miami first round pick. The 76ers could have used an amazing 3 and D player with Simmons, and Embiid, but instead they traded away that player.
Booker this year has put 24.7 points, 4.3 assists, and is shooting 50% from the field. And guess what he’s doing all of this while the Suns are 20-10, and the 4th seed in the West. He deserves to be an all star this year.
Let’s take a look at who did make it for the Western Conference reserves.
Dame Lillard, Chris Paul, Donovan Mitchell, and Rudy Gobert all deserve to make the all star team in my opinion. These players are all on amazing teams, and have had great seasons. There’s 2 players that have very shaky cases to make this team, and that is Zion, and Anthony Davis. AD is averaging 22.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, and is shooting 53% from the field. That sounds like decent stats, but for people who actually watch basketball AD is playing like shit. He has only played 23 games this season out of the 32 games that the Lakers have played. Old man LeBron is out there playing every game, and Davis can’t stay healthy enough to play more than 2/3 of the season.
Zion has been shoved down everyone’s throat as the Pelicans have been on so many national televised games. Watching Zion is more like watching an alien. There’s no way that he is the same species as me. Zion is averaging 25.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, and shooting an insane 61% from the field. Those stats are all star worthy, but having your team being 13-17 is not all star worthy. This seems to be another Adam Silver being a puppet master, and pulling the strings in order for Zion to get in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
Is this a situation where the NBA restricted who could make it because they had to have a certain numbers of backcourt, and front court players? That is not a reasonable excuse the NBA has gone away from traditional play as a center can bring the ball up and shoot from 3. The all star game is all about fun, so just let the best players be in the all star game fuck your roster spot.
