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NBA: The 25 best NBA players never to make an All-Star game

By Josh Cornelissen

DENVER - NOVEMBER 9: Marcus Camby #23 of the Denver Nuggets pumps his fist after a big play against the Sacramento Kings in the fourth quarter on November 9, 2005 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
DENVER - NOVEMBER 9: Marcus Camby #23 of the Denver Nuggets pumps his fist after a big play against the Sacramento Kings in the fourth quarter on November 9, 2005 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /
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Byron Scott
Byron Scott, Photo by Mike Powell /Getty Images /

The 25 best NBA players never to make an All-Star game — 16. Byron Scott

Before he was an NBA head coach who reached the NBA Finals twice and won Coach of the Year in 2008, Byron Scott was a key rotation player on one of the greatest teams to ever play, the “Showtime” Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s. Drafted fourth overall in the 1983 NBA Draft, Scott was immediately traded to the Lakers and never looked back.

Despite playing for a stacked team fresh off a trip to the NBA Finals, Scott started 49 games as a rookie for the Lakers. Beginning the following season in 1984-85, the first of three championship seasons for Scott and the Lakers, he would start 122 straight postseason games for the Lakers, the off-guard to the dynamic Magic Johnson.

Scott was an offensive weapon whose jump shot allowed him and the Lakers to punish teams that packed the paint against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and Johnson inside. He averaged 16 points per game in his second season, and as many as 21.7 points per game in 1987-88, another title season. Despite the firepower of his teammates, Scott demonstrated he was not only a winning player but every bit capable of hanging in the biggest games with the best of opponents.

Closest Call: The 1987-88 Lakers were shifting touches away from the aging Abdul-Jabbar (now in his forties) and Scott was the beneficiary. He led the team in scoring at 21.7 points per game, ahead of both Magic and Worthy. He ranked 11th in the league in points scored, was in the top-20 in 3-point percentage, and was eighth in the league in win shares at 10.7. Amazingly, perhaps doomed with the shadows of his Hall of Fame teammates, he was outside of the top-10 in All-Star voting for Western Conference guards, behind players such as Sleepy Floyd and Rolando Blackman. Scott should have received an All-Star spot this season.