Getty
Mitch Johnson of the San Antonio Spurs during play against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first half at Crypto.com Arena on February 10, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
As many as seven teams — the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks — will have at least two players representing them in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game.
Yet only two of those teams own better records than the San Antonio Spurs (37-16). The blatant favoritism has annoyed Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson, who can’t understand why De’Aaron Fox or Stephon Castle didn’t make the cut among the reserves.
“I do think it’s very interesting that De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle have not been named an All-Star,” Johnson said after his Spurs steamrolled the Lakers, 136-108, on Tuesday, via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
“So I’ll answer that question that wasn’t asked. But seven teams in this league have multiple All-Stars, and we’ve played pretty good against a lot of the top teams in this league.”
NBA All-Star Lakers Bias?
Further to Johnson’s point, the Lakers (Luka Doncic, LeBron James), Knicks (Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns), Raptors (Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes), Nuggets (Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray) and Rockets (Alperen Sengun, Kevin Durant) all have inferior records to the Spurs, both overall and head-to-head, yet will have more All-Star representation. Johnson is perplexed by the turn of events.
“Nothing to take away from anybody who has been named an All-Star, because they have a lot of great players,” Johnson said. “But the only way I can think we are deserving of [only] one All-Star means there must be an awful lot of people that have Victor Wembanyama as one of the front-runners for MVP. So thanks for asking.
As Johnson noted, Wemby was overwhelmingly voted in as a starter by a combination of votes from fans (50%), active players (25%) and media personnel (25%). However, the reserves were voted on by the 30 NBA head coaches, who decided to reward aging stars like LeBron James and Kevin Durant, likely for sentimental reasons.
NBA All-Star Game Selections
It’s worth mentioning that the NBA had at least three opportunities to correct the error of the 30 head coaches who did not vote Fox or Castle as reserves.
First, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver added Kawhi Leonard to bring the total number of U.S. NBA All-Stars to 16, the minimum required. Then, he selected Alperen Sengun as the replacement for the injured Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. And finally, on Tuesday, he named Brandon Ingram as the replacement for Stephen Curry.
While the injury to Canadian SGA wouldn’t have opened up a spot among the two U.S. rosters, Castle or Fox could have been chosen as a replacement for Curry.
Spurs veteran Harrison Barnes is just as baffled as his head coach over Castle and Fox’s omissions.
“It would be criminal if him [Castle] or Fox didn’t get a look [as All-Stars],” Barnes said, via Jeff McDonald of San Antonio Express-News.
“We’re No. 2 in the West,” Barnes said of his 37-16 squad. “Teams below us have two All-Stars. I don’t know a case where if you’re talking about having an impact on winning, either of them shouldn’t be selected and/or at least under consideration.”
The NBA may name another All-Star replacement for injured Greek superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo ahead of Sunday’s game. However, neither Castle nor Fox would qualify to fill a spot on Team World, opening the door for a non-U.S. player.
Sai Mohan covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan
More Heavy on Spurs
Loading more stories