Hawks guard Trae Young was not among the reserves picked for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game on Thursday.
Young could still be added as an injury replacement before the Feb. 19 game in Salt Lake City.
Young, who has been an All-Star twice, is averaging 27 points and 9.9 assists in 46 games this season.
The 24-year-old Young was an All-Star starter in 2020 and 2022. He played 16 minutes and had 10 points and 10 assists in Team Giannis’ two-point loss in 2020 and 13 points and 10 assists in 19 minutes for Team Durant in its three-point loss last year.
The reserves are selected by the 30 NBA head coaches, who each cast ballots for seven players from their own conference.
From the Eastern Conference, the reserves were Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, Boston’s Jaylen Brown, Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan, Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday and New York’s Julius Randle.
From the Western Conference, the picks were Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Portland’s Damian Lillard, Memphis teammates Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., Utah’s Lauri Markkanen, Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Paul George.
Others not picked included Phoenix’s Devin Booker and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis. Philadelphia’s James Harden, averaging 11 assists per game, also was left out. Unless he’s picked as an injury replacement, his streak of 10 consecutive All-Star appearances is over.
The 14 players who were announced Thursday join this pool of starters: team captains LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Brooklyn teammates Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Dallas’ Luka Doncic, Denver’s Nikola Jokic and New Orleans’ Zion Williamson.
Durant and Williamson are currently out with injuries. If either of them, or any other All-Star selection, cannot play for whatever reason then the task of replacing them falls on Commissioner Adam Silver.
James and Antetokounmpo will draft their teams live, shortly before the All-Star Game in a new twist this season; past All-Star drafts in the now-6-year-old captain’s format had been done ahead of time.
Boston interim coach Joe Mazzulla will coach Antetokounmpo’s team; Denver’s Michael Malone is an All-Star coach now for the second time and will coach the team that James selects.
