James Harden was not named to the 2023 NBA All-Star Game. The Philadelphia 76ers guard has had a great season but lost his streak of consecutive All-Star appearances at 10. While other great players like Pascal Siakam and Anthony Edwards also got snubbed, the Sixers star not getting in is particularly blasphemous.
Four Eastern Conference players listed as guards made it over James Harden. With two guards spots and two wild-card spots to place Harden, the coaches instead voted in Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Haliburton, Jrue Holiday and DeMar DeRozan (who should be listed as a forward, but whatever) as All-Star reserves. Those four players are all extremely good but not finding any room for Harden is just wrong.
After the Sixers' victory over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, Harden said that making an All-Star Game is still meaningful at this stage of his career. “I’m not going to sit up here and say I should be an All-Star and make a case, none of that,” he said. “The numbers show it. Our seed shows it. It would be, I think, my 11th in a row. So, obviously, it’s always an honor.”
Indeed, the numbers show that James Harden is an All-Star. Across 34 games this season, he has averaged 21.4 points, a league-best 11.0 assists, 6.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game with a well-above-average true shooting percentage of 61.9 percent. Although he isn't the one-man offense he used to be, few players have been as dominant as Harden has been this season. His playmaking and secondary scoring are pivotal reasons why the Sixers have a top-five record in the league.
The Sixers score 7.3 more points per 100 possessions with Harden on the floor, per Cleaning the Glass. Incredibly, that mark is the highest on the team and ranks in the 92nd percentile among all players. Incredible stats and a massive impact on a winning team apparently weren't enough of a case for the 33-year-old guard.
Those who argue that Harden missing too many games should hurt his All-Star case should consider that Stephen Curry and Jaren Jackson Jr. both made it despite playing only a handful of more games. Zion Williamson, a starter for the West, has played five fewer. Harden has undoubtedly been one of the 20-or-so best players in the 2022-23 campaign.
Many of Harden's teammates, including Joel Embiid, expressed frustration over Harden being snubbed. The Beard himself spoke out as well.
James Harden’s reaction to the All-Star reserve voting: pic.twitter.com/zgVu2Szsae
— Sam DiGiovanni (@BySamDiGiovanni) February 3, 2023
Really, both he and Embiid were mistreated in All-Star voting. The NBA website's MVP ladder isn't the perfect tool to measure a player's success but Embiid is in second place (behind only Nikola Jokic) while Harden is seventh. The former isn't starting in the All-Star Game — another highly controversial result — and the latter wasn't even voted in. Everyone else in the top 10 is an All-Star. The math, as they say, is not mathing.
“You never want to take that for granted,” Harden said of earning All-Star recognition. “It means you’re doing something right and you’re making an impact on your team and on the game. So, if my name is called, great. If not, there are bigger, better goals for the season.”
Joel Embiid and James Harden have already worked very well together. But now going into a second-half schedule with a lot of tough matchups, the Sixers and their stars have plenty of motivation on top of their desire for a championship.
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