NBA All-Star Selections: Ray Allen and "Mo" Williams Snubbed For Stats

NBA coaches are supposed to be the most knowledgeable people in the game. Maybe not.

If you can’t get expert opinions about basketball from guys who get paid handsomely to coach the game, then who can you turn to? These same multi-million dollar salaried NBA coaches simply punted away their responsibility when it came to picking this year's NBA All-Star reserves.

More specifically, the coaches in the Eastern Conference blew their chance to show their own players that winning means more than padding your scoring line.

The fans often take a beating from coaches, players, and sports writers when it comes to voting for all-star teams, regardless of the sport. In the NBA, the fans choose the starters and the coaches pick the reserves, and by and large, the fans did the superior job.

Outside of the fans' choice of Allen Iverson, the fans vote was absolutely right. 

Even their choice of Iverson can be easily rationalized given that he is a perennial all-star and fan favorite, who is still averaging 16 points and almost seven assists per game, and is among the league leaders in steals. Not to mention, he is playing on a team likely to grab the four or five spot in the playoffs.

But the coaches phoned it in.

It is possible, even likely, that the coaches gave some geek in the public relations department the opportunity to make their pick for them. If they are going to treat it that way, the NBA should allow the players to vote, or just let the fans pick the entire team.

Let’s start with the most glaring error in the game: Ray Allen of the Celtics. If you ask his teammates, Allen might be the MVP of his team right now. He has been asked to sacrifice his stats and make his teammates better. Thus, a lower per game average. But Allen is shooting the ball at an incredible 49.7 percent clip and is simply the best pure jump shooter in the game today.

The fact that he averages 18 points per game on a team with two potential hall-of-famer's, and a point guard who also puts the ball in the hole, is astonishing.

Danny Granger, the shooting guard who made the All-Star team over Allen, averages more points per game, but he has done it by taking 216 more shot attempts. TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN! Allen might be dropping over 30-points per night if he had Granger’s supporting cast.

The coaches fell into the same trap when choosing New Jersey Nets' Devin Harris over point guard Maurice "Mo" Williams of the Cavaliers. Harris is averaging four more points and two more assists per game than Williams.

But stats tell only half the story.

Williams has taken a good Cavalier team and made it one of the top teams in the league. Harris completely dominates the ball for a team that is playing for a lottery pick in the draft (as is Granger’s). Meanwhile, Williams has to share both the scoring load and ball-handling duties with LeBron James in order to get that ring.

Players, like Allen and Williams, should be rewarded for giving themselves up for the good of the team in order to make their teams better and making them possible championship contenders.

Instead, the Eastern Conference coaches let them down by looking at the scoring stats and not the sum of their respective games.

I hear coaches bemoan the lack of competitiveness in their own players. They harp on trying to get their players to do the little things to help make their team a winner. They want their players to quit looking at the stat sheet and look at the win column instead.

Hey coaches, if that is what you want, why don’t you have your players watch a little tape of Allen and Williams? You know, two guys who have been vital to making their respective teams among the best in the NBA.

Just don’t tell your players you voted for someone else for the All-Star team because they had lower scoring averages.

Below is the NBA Eastern Conference All-Star Rosters

Eastern Conference Starters:

G Dwayne Wade, Miami

G Allen Iverson, Detroit

F LeBron James, Cleveland

F Kevin Garnett, Boston

C Dwight Howard, Orlando

Eastern Conference Reserves:

G Joe Johnson, Atlanta

G Jameer Nelson, Orlando

G Devin Harris, New Jersey

G-F Danny Granger, Indiana

F Paul Pierce, Boston

F Chris Bosh, Toronto

F Rashard Lewis, Orlando