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Isaiah Thomas on All-Star vote: 'It's not the end of the world'

Bob DeChiara / USA Today Sports

The most egregious snub of this year's All-Star starters was easily Russell Westbrook being left off the Western Conference squad, but second place may have to go to the league's fourth-leading scorer, Isaiah Thomas.

Kyrie Irving and DeMar DeRozan were chosen as the Eastern Conference All-Star starters in the backcourt, edging out Thomas and Dwyane Wade who finished third and fourth. However, with the weighted average being instilled into voting this year, Thomas actually tied DeRozan as far as placing among the guards went. Toronto's top scorer won the deciding tiebreaker through fan vote only, which DeRozan had roughly 40,000 more votes than the Celtics point guard.

"King of the Fourth" as he's becoming known around the league, was hoping to get the starting nod, but he's not going to let it get to him.

"I was disappointed, but those guys deserve it as well," Thomas told ESPN's Chris Forsberg. "I did everything I can in my control to put me in position to be a starter so I can't really worry about the things I can't control. It's not the end of the world."

Thomas has been an absolute dynamo for the 26-16 Celtics, and is arguably the main reason the team finds themselves in sole possession of third place in the Eastern Conference. He's posting a career-high 28.7 points per game, as well as career-high shooting splits of 46/38/91, to go along with leading the NBA in fourth quarter points per contest with 10.1.

Related: 3 deserving starters snubbed by All-Star voters

The case could be made for both Thomas, and Toronto's other guard, Kyle Lowry as the more deserving players to start, but just like it used to, it all came down to who the fans wanted to see.

"I guess it was (the fan vote)," Thomas continued. "I didn't really look at what the reasoning was, but I mean, it is what it is. I'll use it as motivation, I'll keep going. I've got to get better, that's all I took out of that. I'm not where I wan't to be."

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