Mike Conley Will Finally Make His First Ever All Star Game As A Replacement For Devin Booker

A little while ago when the news first dropped that Conley was going to the All Star Game, this is how it was worded

Very confusing, mostly because we hadn't heard of any injury yet. Was the league just inviting Conley because he had gone forever without ever getting the nod? Then there was speculation that he was going to replace Zion, someone who just sat out a game the other day. That made more sense. Well, now we know that player is Devin Booker. There are two ways to look at this. First, that sucks for Book. Especially since he was already replacing an injured AD. At the same time, the Suns are one of the best teams in the league before the break and I would imagine they want to continue to be in that tier after the break. You need a healthy Booker to do that. Unfortunate, but he's probably got a few more in his future.

The second way you can look at this is that it is very cool for Mike Conley. Look, if Conley was a guard in the East his whole career, it's an absolute fact that he would have more than zero (0) All Star appearances to his name. Hard to hold it against a guy that just so happened to play in a conference that has been loaded with insane point guard talent. You're telling me there aren't some All Star seasons in there if this happened while playing in the East?

I'd say there are at least two. It's also true that he's had a nice bounce back season for the team with the NBA's best record. Those numbers are legit, I don't think anyone would suggest otherwise. By all accounts, Conley is having a nice season. Now, is he having a better year than someone like…De'Aaron Fox (23/3/7.6 on 46/34%) or DeMar DeRozan (20/5/7 on 48/30%)? Eh. There's probably some narrative at play here. I mean Conley is regarded as the best player to never make an All Star team and the Jazz are really good, I get it. The Kings stink right now, that probably didn't help either.

For the most part though it's hard not to have watched Mike Conley all these years and not feel happy for the guy. He never really complained about it. What could he do? He's obviously a Memphis legend for everything he did as a Grizzlie and it would have been cool to see him make it while in a member of that team with fans in the stands. But hey, after 14 years I guess you take what you can get.