“That’s always going to be the conversation every year — who got snubbed, who didn’t,” Devin Booker said Friday. “There’s a lot of people who are deserving.”
Atlanta guard Trae Young doesn’t view not getting picked for the All-Star Game as getting snubbed.
He has a new word.
“It’s getting ‘Traed’ at this point,” he wrote on social media.
Young, the NBA’s assist leader this season and a three-time All-Star selection, obviously wasn’t pleased about not getting picked for the Feb. 16 All-Star event in San Francisco. The league’s coaches pick the reserves for the game, their selections getting revealed on Thursday.
And a few notables didn’t make the cut, including Young and Phoenix’s Devin Booker — a two-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time All-Star.
It is not the first time Booker has been left out when many felt he had All-Star numbers. In recent days, Suns coach Mike Budenholzer also offered a strong pitch for Booker to get an All-Star nod this year.
“Obviously, something that I wanted to be a part of,” Booker said Friday in comments after Phoenix’s shootaround practice before a game at Golden State. “But definitely not going to complain about taking a week to regroup with the family.”
Young hasn’t been voted into the game since 2022; he was an injury replacement selected by Commissioner Adam Silver for the All-Star Game last year. Hawks coach Quin Snyder made clear that he believes the players who made the All-Star roster are deserving.
Booker lauded Young and Ball for putting up what he called “unheard of numbers” and when asked if All-Star rosters should be expanded said that “the more talent in there, the better, I think.”
“There’s so many talented players in the league now,” Booker said. “You could build a case probably for three or four guys on each side that have a legitimate case of being an All-Star.”