Philadelphia fans are not happy Joel Embiid was not named an NBA All-Star starter, and Daryl Morey was the most irate over the perceived snub.
Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum was named to his fourth All-Star Game on Thursday. The Brooklyn Nets will send in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell rounded out the backcourt, and Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was named the captain of the Eastern Conference.
The reserves will be named on Feb. 2, but that didn't stop the NBA world from pointing out who was snubbed -- even though there is very little financial difference between an All-Star starter and reserve. Embiid was the one that got many peeved.
For clarification, voters must choose three frontcourt players and two backcourt players. Fans made up 50% of the vote, media made up 25% of the vote and the players made up the final 25% of the vote.
But Morey, the 76ers president of basketball, had one entity to blame for what he believed to be an injustice.
"I will say: Joel Embiid, completed hosed once again," Morey said on "The Anthony Gargano Show" on Friday, per Awful Announcing. "This time the perpetrators of the crime were the shameless media. Most of them have recused themselves because they don't want to vote on something that affects players' paychecks. But the shameless Boston media is way overrepresented. They haven't recused themselves, and they shoved Joel low enough so he isn't an All-Star starter. It's crazy."
When Gargano pled for the NBA to do something about this apparent crime, Morey added: "They do the opposite, they anti-do stuff about it. Instead of All-NBA and All-Star systems -- basically, just put the five best people on the floor, they continue to hold onto antiquated notions of symbols we put next to players."
Embiid leads the NBA in scoring with 33.4 per game, and Philadelphia is second in the Eastern Conference as of Friday. But what typically gets lost in the debate on who got snubbed or not is who would be replaced.
Morey closed out his argument by stating that voting should be for the five best players rather than limiting it to a certain number of positions. So it sounds like the 76ers executive would want to get rid of either Irving and Mitchell since there is not a compelling case to leave off Durant, Antetokounmpo or Tatum.
Embiid likely will be named an All-Star, but the next Celtics-76ers game on Feb. 8 should make for an interesting environment after Morey's comments.
