Carmelo Anthony chosen as replacement for Kevin Love in 2017 NBA All-Star Game After the news came out that Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love was going to miss up to 6 weeks of the regular season due to knee surgery, the NBA set in motion the process of selecting a replacement for him on the East All-Star Squad.
The process currently being used is for the NBA Commissioner to announce the next player in line. Adam Silver’s decision will be influenced by the coach’s poll used to determine reserves and all-star fan voting, which determines the starters for the game.
Based on the results of the coach’s poll, which is kept confidential, it’s not necessarily a surprise that the New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony was selected. He also received a lot of fan votes. As such, he was named Love’s replacement for this weekend’s NBA All-Star Classic at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.
It seems reasonable enough that Anthony, a guaranteed Hall of Famer, would get the call to play in the All-Star game. This is his eleventh opportunity to play in the NBA’s biggest exhibition event. With that said, the selection didn’t come without a bit of controversy surrounding the announcement. There were a number of NBA player’s, who seemed to take exception to his placement on the East team including Bradley Beal and Joel Embiid.
Beal was one player who seemed particular irked by Anthony’s selection was the Washington Wizards’ guard Bradley. As the one of the two best players on the conference’s third best team, Beal certainly felt he warranted the call over Anthony, whose Knicks are flailing in the standings. This is what Beal had to say to thethe press after the announcement:
“I’ll never say a player doesn’t deserve to be on the all-star team. For one, Carmelo is a great player. Hell, he’s been one of the best offensive threats in the league for years now, and I’m taking absolutely nothing away from him. But the process of it does not make sense. If they reward winning, then I don’t understand how the decision was made. It was kind of weird to me.”
Here’s some of the facts that Beal doesn’t seem to want to consider. On the season, Anthony has outscored Beal, Anthony 23.4; Beal 22.3. Additionally, Anthony has more rebounds and Beal more assists, which can be attributed to the positions each player plays. Unfortunately, winning took a backseat to the fact Anthony got 500,000 more fan votes than Beal and that Anthony plays in New York City, the NBA’s largest market. The bottom line is it’s difficult to argue against Anthony over Beal star — it’s not a true All-Star snub with each player having strong legitimate reasons to be there.
For gamblers looking to bet on this weekend’s game, they might want to refer to the current 2017 offer and code that are available. After last year’s record setting combined score of 359 points in a blowout win by the West, gamblers and fans alike would seem to have plenty to look forward to this weekend.