Damian Lillard, 2017
Damian Lillard has been snubbed from the All-Star Game multiple times throughout his career. The most notable snub came in 2017. The Portland Trail Blazers were under-performing by the time the All-Star reserves were announced, but still, that is the season in which Lillard averaged a career-high 27 points per game.
Sure, the Blazers were under .500 at that time, but so are the current Orlando Magic. Despite their 21-31 record, Nikola Vucevic was voted in as a reserve in the Eastern Conference.
Lillard was prolific during the 2016-17 season. He scored 30+ points on 27 different occasions, and provided the Jazz with one of their worst memories over the last few seasons. Remember when he dropped 59 points against Utah when they were fighting for home-court advantage in the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs? The Jazz ultimately didn’t need that home-court advantage, but man, what a performance by Dame.
Compared to Gobert’s snub this year, it’s tough. I’d side with Gobert, though. Looking back at the 2017 Western Conference All-Star roster, many players deserved it. Former Jazz star Gordon Hayward deserved it over Lillard, in my opinion, given the Jazz’ success and his breakout year. Klay Thompson and Russell Westbrook were the other guards, which you can’t really argue about. That was the year where Russell Westbrook won the MVP, as a matter of fact.
At the end of the day, Gobert not making it over Karl-Anthony Towns and LaMarcus Aldridge is far more blasphemous than Lillard not making it over Hayward, Westbrook and Thompson in 2017.