Dirk Nowitzki made his seventh consecutive All-Star team when reserves were announced a few minutes ago, but Josh Howard did not make the team.
Forwards David West of New Orleans, Carlos Boozer of Utah and Brandon Roy of Portland joined Nowitzki as reserves. Also named to the team were Chris Paul of the Hornets and Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire of the Suns.
Nowitzki said he was pleased to be on the team, but spent only a few seconds talking about it being an honor before talking about Howard.
"I'm more disappointed than anything about Josh not being there," Nowitzki said. "He's had an unbelievable year and he deserves to be there as much as I do. He's been probably the most consistent all year. It's disappointing but the West is so tough to get in there. All these players deserve to go and don't go."
Howard was clearly disappointed.
"The same people go every year," he said. "I don't know what else to do or say. You've got to average 40 points a game. A player that shows steady improvement [is ignored]. Football changes up, baseball changes up. But like I say, it's cool."
Mavericks coach Avery Johnson was also upset.
"I think that's a shame," Johnson said. "It's very disappointing. I thought that it's the greatest thing to be recognized by coaches and we just didn't have enough coaches votinig for him. We're happy for Dirk, but right now, we think we're at a stage where we have two guys that deserve to be automatic All-Stars."
-- Jan Hubbard
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