All-star snubs continue for Williams

The Jazz enter another All-Star break, today, happy to rest their aching bones. For guard Deron Williams, among others, it's a much-needed respite from the grappling and shouldering that occurs on an everyday basis.

Not that he's glad about being sidelined. Actually, he's ticked. At least he played that way in Wednesday night's 113-109 win over the Lakers. Now in his fourth season, things haven't gone according to plan. He's still not an All-Star. First year, he rode the bench in the early season. No chance there. But the second , third and fourth years he didn't get selected, either.

At one point, he speculated it was because he played in a small market. Could be, but that didn't seem to hurt Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson or Rashard Lewis from Orlando, David West from New Orleans, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker from San Antonio, or Brandon Roy from Portland.

They're small market players, too, and they made this year's A-list.

Williams missed six games early in the season due to an ankle sprain, tried to come back too early and missed seven more. That was it. As far as an All-Star candidate goes, he was as gone as an eight-track stereo. Maybe next year he'll be there. Or not. With Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Tracy McGrady, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Steve Nash, Chauncey Billups and Brandon Roy in the West, he could become the best player in history never to be named to an All-Star team — though that's unlikely.

At this speed, how long can they can hold him back?

In the last five games he scored 35, 34, 34, 31 and 31 points. So he didn't leave quietly. The All-Star voters can just wonder what they've done while checking out Wednesday night's box score.

That's like omitting "The Dark Knight" from the list of best picture nominees.

Oh, wait, that happened, too.

If this seems disrespectful of the player who ranks second in the NBA in assists, and was among 12 selected to the Olympic team, it is. Williams isn't doing much to disguise the oversight. Wednesday he had 11 assists to go with his 31 points.

"He can put up big numbers," said teammate Ronnie Price.

Williams has said previously he isn't trying to make a statement. It's true, he always plays hard. But it doesn't hurt to do some extra damage while he's at it. Remember the night Karl Malone rampaged for 61 points after being snubbed by voters in 1990?