Final rosters for the 2019 NBA All-Star Game were announced on Thursday evening. Among the reserves selected to play in Charlotte on February 17 were annual participants like the New Orleans Pelicans' Anthony Davis, Oklahoma City Thunder's Russell Westbrook, and Portland Trail Blazers' Damian Lillard.

First-time All-Stars include the Denver Nuggets' Nikola Jokic, Philadelphia 76ers' Ben Simmons, and Milwaukee Bucks' Khris Middleton. It's a star-studded event, of course, marrying the league's most established players with easily-overlooked veterans and exciting up-and-comers.

Not chosen for the All-Star Game, though, was Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who misses out on the event again this time around despite notching career-highs of 15.0 points and 12.8 rebounds per game, and a league-leading 65 percent shooting. But the Stifle Tower's biggest impact comes on the other end of the floor, where he's led Utah to the NBA's fifth-ranked defense with elite rim-protection that not only causes misses, but also prevents opposing players from attacking the paint altogether.

Understandably, Utah point guard Ricky Rubio was irked by his teammate being left on the outside looking in at the All-Star Game, and let the world know about it on Twitter.

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Rubio, shrewdly, doesn't go so far as to suggest which All-Star is less deserving of his spot than Gobert. And frankly, given the talent disparities between the conferences, there's no foolproof case to make for Gobert over any of the seven Western Conference players chosen as reserves on Thursday. Would Gobert have made it in the East, though? Almost certainly, likely ahead of Vucevic or Middleton.

Unfortunately, until the league office goes back to the drawing board on conference re-alignment or the All-Star selection process, there will be two or three deserving players out West who fall victim to an arbitrary numbers game ā€“ and this season it was Gobert yet again.