ORLANDO — Hawks forward Josh Smith looks at the reserves voted to the Eastern Conference All-Star team and figures there must be behind-the-scenes forces that explain why some of the players made the team ahead of him.
“You’ve got to factor in there is a lot of politics involved in the All-Star selection,” Smith said Friday. “Once you get that it’s really about politics, then nothing really surprises you. I call it ‘Nothing But Associates,’ NBA. It’s all who you know.”
Coaches vote for the All-Star reserves, so there is the potential for lobbying by fellow coaches, other team personnel, and player agents. For example, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle reportedly lobbied coaches to vote for forward Dirk Nowitzki, who was selected for the team even after he had said he didn’t deserve it.
Smith said “I guess I don’t know the right people” and didn’t have people lobbying on his behalf.
“I can’t really point a finger and blame anybody because, at the end of the day, when you leave it up to certain people that still have ties to their agents, [and] players in this game today probably [are] just putting in a bid over the phone, or however they do it,” he said. “You have to factor that in.”
Looking at Smith’s production and the Hawks’ record, it appears he has a case to be included on the East team.
East coaches selected Philadelphia forward Andre Iguodola, whose team is ahead of the Hawks in the standings, but whose statistics aren’t as good as Smith’s. Boston forward Paul Pierce’s numbers are similar to Smith’s, but the Celtics lag behind the Hawks. Chicago is atop the East standings, but forward Luol Deng isn’t producing like Smith and has missed seven games because of injury.
Smith has posted strong numbers in points, rebounds, blocks, steals and assists while playing every game for a winning team.
“The guys who make the team are really good players, but there are always guys who are left off that can make a case,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said before his team faced the Hawks on Friday. “Smith is one of them.”
Smith believed he should have been an All-Star the past two seasons, too. Each time he said he wasn’t motivated to prove coaches wrong, only to go on a tear after not making it and then later acknowledging that the snubs were a factor.
Smith again said he won’t use his exclusion from the All-Star team as any motivation, in part because he believes he’s already playing at a high level.
“All I can do is play my game,” he said. “The whole world knows I deserve to be in an All-Star. I can’t be salty about not making it. I’ve just got to keep doing the things I’ve been doing on the court, and that’s playing at a high level.”
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