With the way the league classified starters for the NBA All-Star Game as backcourt and frontcourt rather than by position, there was going to be one very deserving player in the Eastern Conference who was going to be snubbed so to speak. Naming the starters has changed in recent years with the vote coming from fans (50 percent), media (25 percent) and players (25) percent. With the frontcourt in the East, there were four players equally deserving of being named a starter, the Philadelphia 76ers Joel Embiid, the Boston Celtics Jayson Tatum, the Brooklyn Nets Kevin Durant and and the Milwaukee Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo. All four players have arguably been having MVP-caliber seasons. As it turns out, it was the Sixers Joel Embiid who was not voted in as a starter. Predictably, that led to a lot of commotion on social media.

https://twitter.com/BolWrld/status/1618763995393183744

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On the season, Embiid is averaging 33.4 points per game, 9.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.7 blocked shots while shooting 53.2 percent from the field and 34.5 percent from the three-point line for the Sixers. He is second in the league only behind Luka Doncic in points per game. While Embiid may not have been named a starter, there is absolutely no possibility that he is not named as one of the reserves. The reserves for the NBA All-Star game will be named on Feb. 2 on TNT and they are selected by the the league’s 30 head coaches.

While Embiid’s starter snub may be causing a ruckus online, the truth of the matter was that somebody was going to be snubbed no matter what.