If Joe Johnson had any vacation plans for All-Star weekend, he will have to cancel.
The Nets star will be headed to New Orleans next month after being named to his seventh All-Star team Thursday night.
“On behalf of the entire Nets organization, I want to congratulate Joe on his selection to the 2014 All-Star Game,” Nets general manager Billy King said in a statement. “Joe epitomizes what a true professional is, and we are thrilled at this honor.”
Johnson — who is averaging 15.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists this season — has been the lone constant for the team in a season full of injuries and inconsistent play. He has missed just one game and carried the Nets for stretches while Deron Williams and Brook Lopez missed time with injuries and Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett struggled through inconsistent play.
“Joe should make it,” Williams said after Thursday’s practice. “I feel like he should.
“He’s been the most consistent during all the injuries, and he’s carried us through a lot of games, won a lot of games for us with his late-game shots. … He just deserves to be an All-Star.”
The league’s assistant coaches agreed, voting in Johnson as one of the seven reserves to go to The Big Easy, after Johnson likely cemented his candidacy with hot streak in mid-January, scoring 20 points or more in five of six games to help the Nets win 10 of their first 12 games in the new year heading into Friday’s game against the Thunder.
“This has been a pretty good month for us as a team,” Johnson said after practice. “There’s nothing that I’m looking forward to or worried about or anxious about tonight’s reserves. The guys who will make it will deserve it, and that will be that.”
Johnson last made the All-Star team back in 2012, the last of his six straight appearances while with Atlanta. Brooklyn now has been represented both years since the team’s move from New Jersey. Lopez was an All-Star last year.