The 2024-25 NBA All-Stars have all been revealed, and as is the case every year, there are some glaring absences. Each member of the two teams has earned their spots, to be clear. Long gone are the days where a player would get a spot merely because he is well-known. The starters and reserves all have strong statistical and contextual cases to back up their selections.
However, it only speaks to the depth of talent in the NBA that 24 All-Star selections don’t cover the number of players who are having All-Star-caliber seasons. Yet here we are. Despite a loaded pair of All-Star teams featuring familiar favorites like LeBron James and Nikola Jokic—as well as up-and-comers enjoying their first All-Star weekend like Victor Wembanyama and Cade Cunningham—a few deserving names will be left out of the festivities.
Here we’ll break down the most significant of those snubs and lay out why they were deserving of an All-Star nod this year.
Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento Kings
For the second year in a row, Sabonis’s absurd production and reliability has been ignored. He was a big snub last year and has gotten even better this year, which makes his exclusion all the more egregious. Along with averaging 20.9 points and a league-leading 14.5 rebounds per game, Sabonis has posted some ludicrous stat lines through the first half of the year. He’s pulled down 20 boards on six separate occasions, highlighted by a 28-rebound game against the defending champion Boston Celtics earlier this month. Twice he’s recorded a triple-double with at least 20 rebounds. The Kings may be mediocre, but it’s in spite of Sabonis’s incredible efforts night-in and night-out.
LaMelo Ball, Charlotte Hornets
Through most lenses, Ball shouldn’t really even qualify as a snub, much less earn serious consideration for a roster spot. His stats, on the surface, are great: Ball is averaging 28.2 points and 7.3 assists per game. He makes highlight-worthy plays almost nightly. Yet the 23-year-old is barely shooting over 40% from the field while taking 23 shots per game, his team is 12–32 and he’s already missed 13 games and is currently out nursing an ankle injury. Inefficient stat totals on a losing team while missing games does not add up to an All-Star résumé. But Ball was the leading vote-getter in the fan vote, and somehow didn’t get a spot. Rarely do we see such a discrepancy between how fans view a player and how coaches/media view a player. But it happened. It’s hard to call Ball anything other than a snub in that context.
Kyrie Irving, Dallas Mavericks
We haven’t seen anything from Irving this season that he hasn’t done before; 24.2 points per game on quality shooting splits, including an elite 41.9% from deep on 7.0 attempts per game. But the supernatural scorer has been unusually reliable this season, on pace to play over 60 games for the first time since 2018–19. What’s more, his team has needed every bit he can give as the Mavericks battle constant injuries, including a serious one to Luka Doncic that has left the Dallas star sidelined since late December. Irving has had more deserving All-Star seasons. But between his offensive output, how much better the Mavs are when he’s on the floor and the extra effort he’s put in on defense, he had a very strong case.
Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks
Young has been the poster boy for empty stats for a few years now, putting up silly counting numbers as the Hawks have run the treadmill of mediocrity since making an unexpected deep playoff run in 2021. This year has been a continuation of that as the Hawks sit at 22–25 entering Thursday despite their star point guard averaging a double-double, with Young putting up 22.7 points and a league-leading 11.4 assists per game. It’s easy to debate Young’s ability to win, but it’s hard to deny his production is All-Star-caliber. He’s one of two players averaging double-digit assists this year (the other is Jokic), and his career-high number in assists is coming despite a career-low usage rate. His poor shooting numbers (40.2% from the field, 34.2% on threes) and lack of winning probably spelled doom for him this year, but it’s still a surprise.
Norman Powell, Los Angeles Clippers
James Harden ended up the All-Star representative from the surprisingly-feisty Clippers. It may have been the wrong choice. Because of how much the offense revolves around him when he’s on the court, Harden is perhaps the most important player to the Clippers. But Powell, in a resurgent season, has been the team’s best player. The 31-year-old is averaging 24.0 points per game, five full points above his previous career high, and is putting up nearly three more three-point attempts per game than he did last year yet is still draining them at the same clip: 43.5%. He’s been absolutely electric on the offensive side of the ball all season, and it would have been nice to see that recognized with an All-Star berth.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBA's Biggest All-Star Game Snubs.