Russell Westbrook’s streak of All-Star Game appearances come to an end during his first season with the Washington Wizards.
Unfortunately, Bradley Beal will be the only Washington Wizards player on the court during the 2021 All-Star Game. After being the poster boy for “snubs” everywhere, Beal is finally getting his respect. However, Russell Westbrook‘s streak of six consecutive All-Star Game appearances has ended. On Tuesday night, the All-Star reserves were announced. Jaylen Brown, James Harden, Zach LaVine, Julius Randle, Jayson Tatum, Ben Simmons, and Nikola Vucevic were all selected as reserves from the Eastern Conference. Russell Westbrook was not. For the first time since 2014, the NBA will have an All-Star Game without Russell Westbrook.
So why didn’t the future Hall of Famer make it to the All-Star Game this season? Was he snubbed? Well, not exactly. Even in year 13, Russell Westbrook is still one of the NBA’s biggest stars, but there are legitimate reasons he wasn’t named an All-Star this season.
Russell Westbrook is not an All-Star because the Washington Wizards can’t win
The Wizards aren’t a winning basketball team. Despite a recent five-game win streak, the Wizards are still 13th in the Eastern Conference and seven games under .500 (11-18). It’s likely that if the Wizards had more wins, maybe they would have more All-Stars. The Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets, the East’s top two teams, are each sending at least two players to the 2021 All-Star Game.
Allowing one All-Star from a team with one of the NBA’s worst records is enough, I suppose. Last year when the Wizards had a comparable winning percentage to what they have now, Beal didn’t even make the 2020 All-Star team despite having some of the best offensive numbers in the NBA at that time. So winning does matter for these selections, although they are individual awards and not team ones. Westbrook and the Wizards simply have not done enough winning this season to justify them having two representatives in Atlanta.