NBA All-Star 2013 reserves announced, with several surprises

It’s the same competitions as the past. NBA legends will team up with some current players and WNBA players in the Sears Shooting Stars game where they race to make shots from spots around the court. The Taco Bell Skills Challenge will put the league’s best guards through a challenge of passing, speed, agility and shooting. And there’s the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest and the Sprite Slam Dunk contest, which are pretty self-explanatory.

The new thing about is that team will earn points that raise money for charity. It also decides which conference wins All-Star Saturday Night Champion. NBA Cares and State Farm will make a combined donation of $500,000, of which $350,000 will be donated to the winning conference’s charity of choice. The Eastern Conference will play for Big Brothers Big Sisters and Make-A-Wish America, and the Western Conference will represent the Boys & Girls Club of America and Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign. Wade, Paul, the NBA and State Farm came together to pick the charities.

Lopez was on the list of All-Star snubs, and he will fill in as the only representative for the Nets, who are currently fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 27-18 record.

Let’s hear it, who should Stern pick to replace Rondo?

NBA All-Star Game rosters were announced on Thursday, and Paul Flannery of SB Nation lends his take on the rosters. More specifically, he comments on the deserving selections, which All-Stars might not make for most exciting brand of exhibition ball, and who got snubbed in the Eastern and Western Conferences.

The 2013 NBA All-Star rosters have been finalized, and we’ve now had plenty of time to digest the players that made it and the ones that didn’t, but probably should have. In these last 16 hours, the players and coaches have also had ample time to react to the news.

Here’s a roundup of players, coaches and fans reacting to the All-Star reserve announcement.

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Why did Jackson go after his fellow Western Conference head coaches who selected the All-Star reserve roster? He believes Stephen Curry got snubbed. Heck, he may even believe that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have called Curry’s omission a snub. But he most definitely implied that Curry’s absence from the roster qualifies as a gross miscarriage of justice (via the San Francisco Chronicle):

Steph Curry came close to earning an All-star nod, but then again Jackson came close to going “all Dr. King on us.” The fourth-year guard is shooting 45.1 percent from three-point range this season, and he has posted some impressive efficiency numbers as well (57.4 True Shooting percentage). The Warriors (26-15) are playing well in the ultra-competitive Western Conference, so it’s understandable that Jackson is a bit defensive of his lead guard.

Nets general manager Billy King was taken by surprise that his top big man didn’t receive an All-Star nod:

If stats are your thing, Lopez leads the Nets in scoring (18.6 PPG), is second in rebounding (7.4 REB). He’s seventh on the NBA blocks leaderboard (2.11 BLK), 11th in field goal percentage (54.8 percent), 17th in scoring average and he has posted nine double-doubles, which is one fewer than Chris Bosh (10) on the year -- though Noah (20) and Chandler (17) rank higher on the double-double list.

Everyone’s got their list of players they think should have made the NBA All-Star Game. But I don’t think anyone can disagree with this list.

Patrick Beverley - He was on track to make the PER Hall of Fame. ‘Nuff said.

As usual, the competition for the seven reserve spots for each of the conference’s All-Star teams left deserving players out in the cold. The 2013 NBA All-Star reserves were announced on Thursday after being voted upon by coaches, and in the end, Stephen Curry and Brook Lopez were perhaps the biggest snubs of all.

It’s hard enough to decide on the best players in each conference, much less how to weigh career accomplishments against recent performance as well as the always-controversial question of whether teams “deserve” a certain number of All-Stars.

The NBA released the 2013 All-Star Game rosters on Thursday, and there are a few surprises among the 12 players who made the cut for the Eastern Conference. Head coaches from all 30 NBA teams selected the seven reserve players in each conference to supplement the 10 starting players voted in by the fans. If any player is injured or otherwise unable to attend the All-Star Game, commissioner David Stern will select the replacement.

Here are the selections for Eastern Conference reserves: