Whining for Joe

There are few topics that are more useless than "All-Star Snubs!!!" All-star games are excuses for great parties and contractual bonuses; they aren't meaningful in any way and I can't remember the last all-star game I watched from start to finish in any sport. That said, when you're a fan of a team that's been down for as long as the Hawks have, you get excited by the idea of any recognition for the franchise. Josh Smith winning the 2005 dunk contest was the biggest amount of recognition the Hawks have received in years. Being a Hawks fan is like being an American after our failure in Vietnam and the embarrassing clusterf*** that was the military mission to free the hostages in Teheran. You need that context to understand why we were so happy with our invasion of Granada.

With that introduction, I'm annoyed that Joe Johnson isn't an all-star. Here are his numbers, as compared to the other two all-star reserves at shooting guard:

Johnson - 25.3 ppg, 47.9 FG%, 53.4 adjusted FG%, 4.1 APG, 4.1 RPG, 1.27 points per shot

Vince Carter - 25.0 ppg, 45.7 FG%, 50.6 adjusted FG%, 4.6 APG, 5.6 RPG, 1.29 points per shot

Rip Hamilton - 22.7 ppg, 46.2 FG%, 48.0 adjusted FG%, 3.6 APG, 4.0 RPG, 1.29 points per shot

In addition to the facts that Johnson scores more and shoots for a better percentage than the players who were selected to the all-star game in his place, Carter and Hamilton have the benefit of playing with the two best point guards in the Eastern Conference, while Johnson plays with Tyronne Lue (a decent point guard, but not Billups or Kidd) and Speedy Claxton (on the days when Speedy is not in the shop). I'd understand if the NBA made the decisions on the all-star reserves and thus put Hamilton and Carter on the team because they have higher Q-ratings, as do their teams, but this decision was made by the coaches of the Eastern Conference, who ought to know better than anyone how good Johnson is since they instruct their teams to double him every time he makes any move to the hoop.

In short, I doubt that the rest of the country knows what a terrific player Joe Johnson is and all-star minutes would have helped in raising his profile.