Phoenix Suns: Devin Booker was robbed of a well-earned All-Star Game appearance

Devin Booker is enjoying a fantastic year on a Phoenix Suns team who has shown serious improvement, yet he’s been left off the Western Conference reserves for February’s All-Star Game in Chicago

What else do you need to do in order to make an All-Star Game? That’s the exact question that Devin Booker and a lot of people in and around the association are asking themselves right now. Today, the NBA announced the reserves for the Western and Eastern Conference.

Here are the reserves for the West:

And here are the reserves for the East:

As you can see, there is no Booker among the Western Conference reserves. Instead, Russell Westbrook has been selected for the ninth time, even though Booker is averaging more points per game and is the focal point of the Suns’ offense, whereas Harden is the main man in Houston.

I’m not saying Westbrook isn’t deserving of being in the All-Star Game, but Booker has really proved this year that he is the franchise star in Phoenix. Westbrook is also not the same player he was in OKC.

The Phoenix Suns enjoyed a fantastic start to the season, but have dropped off in the last couple of months. But nevertheless, they’re currently 20-27, which is one their better starts to a season since Booker was a University of Kentucky player more than four years ago. Along with DeAndre Ayton, he’s turned around this franchise and gave Suns fans some array of hope that the future could be bright in the desert.

But there’s a problem. No one in the NBA cares about the Suns. It’s obvious. If Booker was playing on the Houston Rockets, for example, there’s no way he’d be snubbed. This team has been completely irrelevant for many years now. For this reason, Booker won’t get rewarded for his outstanding year so far, even though he’s guiding them to their best season since 2015.

Along with Booker’s ridiculous numbers from a scoring standpoint, he’s also shooting 51 percent from the field and 91 percent from the charity stripe. What more could you want? He’s the first player in NBA history to average at least 27 points, six assists, and a 60 percent true shooting percentage and miss the All-Star Game.

Other names on the list who put up those type of numbers include Steph Curry, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and James Harden, among a few others. The difference is they all made the All-Star game in their respective years. Pretty special company to say the least. But this means one thing. He’s destined to make the All-Star game in the coming years.

Booker is just 23 years old and even though he’s deserving of being in Chicago in a few weeks, he will have to wait his turn. If someone gets hurt before the game though, he will definitely get the call to be a West reserve.

You best believe this situation is creating more fire within Booker’s belly to prove the doubters wrong and continue to show out on a nightly basis. The former Kentucky guard has shown improvement every season since making the jump to the NBA, but it looks like he’ll have to wait a sixth year to call himself an All-Star, making this one of the biggest snubs of this year’s prestigious game. Washington’s Bradley Beal, who is dropping 28.6 points per game, was also left off the Eastern Conference reserves.

NBA All-Star weekend begins on Friday, February 14th, with the Rising Stars game taking place that night. Saturday brings the Slam Dunk and Skills Competiton, then Sunday will be the big game between Team LeBron and Team Antetokounmpo.