James Harden, Mike D’Antoni shocked at Chris Paul’s All-Star snub

Somehow, Chris Paul failed to make the All-Star game this year, despite the Rockets success. James Harden and Mike D’Antoni aren’t too happy about that.

Despite a few bumps and bruises, this season has been extremely successful so far for the Houston Rockets. At 34-12, they have the second best record in the NBA and the pairing of James Harden and Chris Paul has worked like a charm.

Now that we are in the new year, the NBA All-Star game is steadily approaching. It’s always a fun time for fans to vote for their favorite stars and for the players to get the recognition they deserve.

James Harden is probably the current front-runner for MVP, so he was a lock to make the All-Star game. His back court mate, Chris Paul, is also having another great season, but somehow, Paul failed to get enough votes to qualify for the game.

Paul has missed 17 games this year due to injury, but it’s still hard to fathom how the second best team in the league only has one All-Star. Chris Paul, who is the ultimate professional, said that he was just focused on winning, via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon

“Right now, I’m just focused on trying to make sure our team is playing the right way, build, try to make sure we’ve got a championship mindset going forward. Just out here hooping.”

While Paul was okay with missing the big event, at least on camera, his coach and his co-star were not. Mike D’Antoni said that winning wasn’t a big enough factor in the decision to include Paul in the ASG, via MacMahon.

“Obviously, not enough. Obviously, a lot for Golden State and not much for us. But it’s the way it goes. And again, I would be a hypocrite to say that other people haven’t been left off. He’s just [on] a list of a lot that has been snubbed. I just hate the way it went.”

Indeed, D’Antoni has a point. The Warriors sent four players to the All-Star game, even though they’ve only lost two fewer games than the Rockets. Boston also had multiple All-Stars, as did Toronto, Cleveland, Washington and Minnesota, despite the fact that those teams have worse records than Houston.

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According to James Harden, if your team is winning and you’re putting up great numbers, you deserve to be named an All-Star, via MacMahon.

Second-best overall record in the NBA, No. 2 in the best conference in the league, [Paul] averages — what? — 19 [points] and nine assists. I mean, what are we rewarding? What are we rewarding? We’re winning and he’s putting up the numbers. It’s no question.”

James Harden has a point. Al Horford and Draymond Green made the team, despite the fact that they average less than 14 points per game. Sure, they contribute to their teams in other areas, but so does Chris Paul. In my opinion, Paul should have got the nod for the All-Star game over Klay Thompson.

Next: Why James Harden and Chris Paul have worked so well together

Rounding out the “All-Snub” list was Paul George, Andre Drummond, Ben Simmons and Lou Williams. In a league with 30 teams, having just 12 players from each conference for the All-Star game will leave some deserving names off of the list. The NBA should add an extra roster spot for each conference to even things out.