While his fans might not have been too happy that he didn't get an NBA All-Star Game nod this year, Jeremy Lin isn't upset about it at all--in fact, given his struggles this season, he's glad he wasn't chosen.
The Houston Rockets' fan favorite, who starts at point guard for the Rockets, said this week that he wanted to make sure that his play would earn him rightful All-Star consideration, and that wasn't something he felt he had done this season.
"I'm kind of thankful I didn't get voted because when ... I want to make sure I'm fully, fully deserving of it, when I play," Lin told CSN Houston this week. "And I didn't feel like that was the case this year."
Compared to the other point guards who were elected or selected by fans and coaches to play in the 62nd annual All-Star Game, Lin hasn't had a statistically spectacular season, averaging 12.6 points and 6.2 assists--decent, but not great numbers.
And yet, Lin's popularity netted him 883,809 votes, which was the third highest of any Western guard, including fellow Rocket and All-Star James Harden, All-Stars Russell Westbrook and Tony Parker, and NBA top ten scorer Stephen Curry. Lin's vote tally fell only about 45,000 votes shy of unseating Chris Paul--who won the All-Star Game MVP award on Sunday--for the starting point guard position for the West in the game.
Lin still made it to All-Star Weekend, participating as one of the contestants in the Taco Bell Skills Challenge for point guard skills. And he watched teammate Harden play in his first All-Star Game ever.
While Lin had said earlier this season that he wanted to make the All-Star Game at some point in his career, he wasn't going to be worried about it too much, at least not this year.
"I think any player always wants to be in the All-Star Game. I'm not gonna say 'I don't wanna ever be in it' or 'I didn't wanna be in it.' Of course everybody wants to be in it. But I want to make sure that I am deserving of the All-Star nod if that ever happens somewhere down the road, but no player is ever going to say that they don't want to be out there," Lin said.
Going forward as he readied to play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, Lin, who has been hitting 48.3 percent of his three-point shots in the last 10 games, just wants to make sure that the shooting rhythm he was getting into isn't disrupted.
"It's starting to feel good," Lin told the Houston Chronicle. "Hopefully, I can keep it going and pick up where I left off. That's the goal."
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