Last night, the names of the reserve players of the Western Conference All Stars were named and there were not many surprises at it featured all of the usual suspect along with two players who many predicted would earn All Star nods due to their stellar performances during the regular season. The only real surprise came with the selection of the Golden State Warriors David Lee over his much more heralded teammate, Stephen Curry; however, looking at who the coaches selected, it certainly will give justification on why he was snubbed this year.
For starters, the coaches were only allowed to pick just two guards and of the two, they picked Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook who is having the best season of his career. Although his scoring dropped significantly from last season, his overall play improved as he has become more of a facilitator to his teammates and dropping his turnover rate to nearly five per game last season to just three this season. Check out some of the highlights from three-time NBA All-Star Russell Westbrook who is once again enjoying a spectacular season playing alongside Kevin Durant on the Oklahoma City Thunder, averaging over 22 points and 8 assists per game!
The other guard spot was taken by the Spurs' Tony Parker, who has been having another phenomenal season leading San Antonio in scoring and assists while at the same time leading the team to the top of the Western Conference. Watch some of the highlights from Tony Parker's sensational first half of the season, averaging just under 20 points per game to go along with 7.4 assists, good enough to earn him his fifth All-Star selection!
And finally Curry had no chance of earning a spot as the "Wild Card" spot, usually meant versatile players capable of playing more than one position went to the Houston Rockets' James Harden. Harden will be joining his former teammates Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as he enjoys his first selection to the All Star team. Check out some of the highlights from James Harden's monster first half of the season, averaging over 25 points per game! This will be Harden's first All-Star appearance and the game will be played in Houston, the city he now calls home!
As for the man that was chosen above Curry, it is no reason why David Lee should not have been considered as he has been one of the top producing power forwards in the league averaging more than 20 points and 10 rebounds per game while connecting on more than .500 of his field goal attempts. See why Lee deserves such an honor with this small recap of his play in the first half in the season showing how underrated he truly is.
Lee will be joined by another success story in the Memphis Grizzlies' Zach Randolph who went from being portrayed as a pariah to become the Grizzlies' greatest contributor. Check out some of the highlights from Grizzlies double-double machine Zach Randolph, who will be making his second All-Star appearance this year in Houston! On the season, Randolph is averaging over 16 PPG and 11 RPG for Memphis!
Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge will make his second straight All Star appearance as he has silently and unnoticed put up big numbers and leading a surprisingly over achieving Portland team to the shock of many who believed that only direction that the Blazers were headed was down. Check out the highlights of LaMarcus Aldridge's stellar season so far for the Portland Trail Blazers, averaging over 20 PPG to go along with 8.8 RPG, good enough to earn him his second All-Star selection!
And what All Star game would be complete without the "Big Fundamental" himself, the San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan. Check out some of the highlights from Duncan's 2012-13 campaign so far as he continues to enjoy a vintage season, averaging 17.5 PPG to go along with 10 RPG, good enough to make him the 8th player in NBA history to make 14 All-Star appearances!
And there you have it--the best players of the Western Conference as decided by the Fans and coaches. Although it is disappointing to not see Stephen Curry's name among these great players, it is still justifiable as he really does not hold a candle to those who were selected over him despite his stellar play. Due to the subject matter and the adjoining media relation, this post is unusually long than the regular length. Hopefully it will not be considered a turnoff of viewing this pice. As always, you can view full game by game recaps, highlights and post game interviews on www.nba.com/video and be sure to stay tuned in the coming days as SDH recaps, reviews, reminisces, and ranks all 30 teams for the month of December in SDH's Worst to First for December.
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