All of the top six seeds in the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference had at least one player make the All-Star Game except for the Sacramento Kings this year. It is not the first time the league has pushed aside the Kings. While it isn’t surprising to see Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox not get the credit they deserve, it’s still exceptionally disappointing to see neither one make it when they are both deserving of a spot on the team.
Domantis Sabonis is the first player in NBA history since Wilt Chamberlin to average 20 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists on 60 percent from the field. Sabonis leads the league in rebounds and double-doubles(29 straight games with a double-double), is second in triple-doubles, and is top 10 in field goal percentage and assists. Not good enough to be an All-Star.
It gets more infuriating when you see teams like the Lakers get 2 All-Stars even though they are barely hanging on to a play-in spot right now at the 9 seed. Karl Anthony-Towns also made the All-Star list despite Sabonis leading him in every single statistic outside of points per game. You can make the argument for Kat being named an All-Star because of his team currently being first place in the West, but there is no argument as to why Sabonis doesn’t deserve a spot when he is a top 3 center in the league on a winning team while Anthony Davis is the second player on his 9th seeded team to make it. Sabonis currently leads Anthony Davis in assists(8/3), rebounds (13/12), Field goal percentage (61.6/55.4), 3-point percentage (45.1/31.5), plus/minus (0.0/-0.3), and true shooting percentage (65.5/61.7). This will probably go down as one of the worst All-Star snubs we have seen in recent years
De’Aaron Fox is someone you can make the case that maybe shouldn’t have made the list because of his recent struggles. However, even when you take a second and look at the stats it’s pretty evident he could have very easily made the All-Star team if he was on a popular team that gets more media coverage than the Kings. Fox is the first player in NBA history to not make an All-Star game while averaging 27 points and five assists on an above .500 team, which really points out how suspect these selections were this year.
When you look at the stats, Fox is averaging the same amount of points as Stephen Curry, averages more assists, and more steals, and has a better field goal percentage, all while also playing for a winning team while Curry is 12th in the west and probably will not make the playoffs. Paul George made it over Fox and Sabonis despite the fact Sabonis and Fox have both been far more impressive this year in practically every category, which makes it seem like this is more of a popularity contest instead of choosing players based on who is the most deserving.
At the end of the day, the Sacramento Kings are a small market team that typically flies under the radar of the media, so to see a robbery like this happen isn’t something King’s fans haven’t seen before. Sabonis and Fox will continue to show the league why they should have been All-Stars this year, and hopefully, the long break gives the star players time to rest up and get ready for the Playoffs this year.
