CLEVELAND -- Once was too much for the Cleveland Cavaliers. But twice?
The team was outraged last week when guard Mo Williams, who has helped the Cavaliers get off to the best start in their history, was not chosen as a reserve for the NBA All-Star team in a vote by Eastern Conference coaches. LeBron James and his teammates felt Williams belonged and took his omission as disrespectful to him and Cleveland.
On Thursday, Williams was denied again, this time by commissioner David Stern, who picked Boston guard Ray Allen to replace injured Orlando guard Jameer Nelson at next week's game in Phoenix.
The Cavs found the second rejection of Williams so absurd that they're making up words to describe their feelings.
"Ben Wallace was right when he called Mo originally being passed over for the All-Star game a shamockery," Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert said in a tongue-in-cheek e-mail to The Associated Press. "But not naming him as the natural and obvious replacement for the unfortunately injured Jameer Nelson is stupidiculous, idillogical and preposterageous."
Earlier this week, James called Williams' initial slight as "a total smack in the face."
Cleveland will be represented in Arizona by James, who was selected in fan voting, and by coach Mike Brown and his assistants, who will coach the East squad.
But the Cavaliers, 23-0 at home, 39-9 overall and leading the Central Division by 12½ games, feel their play in the first half earned them multiple selections along with Boston, Orlando, the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio.
"It's unfortunate that at the end of the day Boston has three guys and Orlando has three guys and we have one," Brown said after practice on Friday. "LeBron is a hell of a player, but I wonder in people's minds, what does that say about the rest of our team? Defensively we're No. 1. I think our points per game differential is No. 1 Obviously, our record is what it is.
"There are a lot of things stat-wise that show we're a pretty good team. For us not to be represented by multiple guys is disappointing."
The Cavaliers are using Williams' snub as motivation.
"We felt like Mo is a big reason that we are where we are at this point in the season," guard Daniel Gibson said. "It didn't just affect him, it affected all of us. We're just going to continue to use that as motivation. We're going to continue to show that we are one of the premier teams in this league.
"We feel like in order to get respect, we have to gain it. We're just going to go out and win games."
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