All-time NBA all-star snubs

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Sam Cassell appears a mortal lock to make his 
first NBA all-star team as a Western Conference reserve. This selection is 
more overdue than the copy of "Our Bodies, Ourselves" I took out of the 
Brooklyn Public Library in 1986. "Sam I Am" averaged 19.1 points per game 
during his previous four seasons in Milwaukee, but never made the squad. 

This year, Cassell has been lights out, maybe the most valuable player on 
the T-Wolves, averaging 21 points and 7.4 assists. He might have the best 
right-handed shot going left in the game. I relish Cassell's selection 
because perpetual All-Star Game snubbing for top-flight players is the 
ultimate slap in the face. 

Everyone else, it seems, gets a turn. Lest we forget, Christian Laettner 
was an all-star. Ricky Green also was an all-star. Hersey Hawkins was an 
all-star. Heck, even the two immortal Boston College chuckers, Dana Barros 
and Michael Adams, were all-stars. And when Jeff Hornacek opens his car 
dealership, he can call it Hornacek's All-Star Cars. 

But, as Cassell demonstrates, there have been great players who have gone 
entire careers forced to eat a "snub sandwich." Here is my starting 
All-Star Snub Squad, made up of four retired and one barely active players. 
These guys might never get to be called all-stars, but they could take on 
on any five you can bring to the playground: 

PG Rod Strickland - The only active player on this list, Hot Rod led the 
Washington Bullets into the playoffs in 1997. For that alone, he should be 
frozen in a cryogenics lab for future generations to study. 

Strickland was good enough in his 30s to be traded for Rasheed Wallace. He 
was good enough to lead the NBA in assists in 1998. He was good enough to 
have gotten 20 assists in a game three times. But not good enough to make 
the all-star team. Rod's time is gone. He should have an all-star next to 
his resume. 

SG Derek Harper - Harper, the player who would have been finals MVP for 
the 1994 Knicks if John Starks had bothered to go 4-19 instead of 2-19, 
was a stalwart player for the Dallas Mavericks for eons. His unselfish 
play made all-stars out of Rolando Blackman and Mark Aguirre. Yet Harper, 
despite being only the second player in NBA history (along with Isiah 
Thomas) to register 15,000 career points, 6,000 assists, and 1,800 steals, 
never made the team. 

Harper averaged between 16 and 19 points seven-straight years for the 
Mavs, and better than seven assists in five of them. He also made the 
All-NBA defensive second team for two years. We can only assume David 
Stern has a distant cousin named Jo Jo English (see "beat-downs, playoffs, 
1994"). 

C Arvydas Sabonis - What was the worst result of the Cold War? Was it a 
nuclear arms race that threatened humanity? The proxy wars in South East 
Asia and Central America that claimed millions of lives? The slave camps 
of Josef Stalin? The "Rambo" movies? Perhaps. But not far down the list 
has to be that the iron curtain shielded us from the USSR's Arvydas 
Sabonis until he was past his prime. 

In his youth, Sabonis strode the court like a James Bond villain complete 
with wispy mustache, no-look passes, three-point shooting, and thunderous 
dunks. He dribbled circles around players like David Robinson in 
international competition. By the time Sabonis came to the NBA, saddled 
with a Portland franchise containing players who probably could have used 
a month or two in the gulag, he was cashed -- playing on knees made of 
balsa wood and setting records for number of times dunked on by Shaq. 

SF Chuck Person - The Rifleman ended his career fourth all-time in 
three-pointers made and attempted. He was a Rookie of the Year and an 
underrated rebounder, as well. Person is most remembered for matching 
Larry Bird shot-for-shot in a Pacers' playoff loss against the Celtics. 
Unfortunately, he lost a couple of years in the Frigidaire of pre-K.G. 
Minnesota. But Person had star appeal for many a-season... at least more 
than Laettner. 

PF Drazen Petrovic - "Brazen Drazen" was at least a decade ahead of his 
time. He was the first Euro import (and some would argue the last) who 
played with an asphalt attitude, no fear, and as comfortable stroking a 
trey as knocking out your front teeth. 

His importance to the early 1990s Chuck Daly-led resurgent Nets was seen 
when his tragic death led to the spiraling of the overhyped squad built 
around Derek Coleman and Sam Bowie. Ironically, he was a third-team 
All-NBA his last year after averaging 22.4 ppg. Yet was not an all-star. 

So tip your glass to the great Drazen and all the players who never got to 
climb the mountain ascended by luminaries like Tyrone Hill and Kenny 
Anderson. And tip your glass to Sam Cassell. The snubbed shall inherit the 
earth. 

Dave Zirin is the News Editor for the Prince George's Post, in Prince 
George's County, Maryland. He can be reached at editor@pgpost.com. To 
read more of Zirin's work, check out EdgeofSports.com.