spread_rebound_sThe Denver Nuggets have received some bittersweet news about the upcoming NBA All-Star Game. NBA coaches “snubbed” Chauncey Billups, writes The Denver Post, and instead selected other players to fill out the bench for the Western Conference team.

Injuries and a slow start for Billups probably played a role, but his recent performances had Denver fans believing he deserved the honor, as we noted earlier this week.

George Karl, however, will get to coach his fourth All-Star game—his first since joining the Nuggets, according to NBA.com. Karl earned the honor when the Nuggets clinched the conference’s second-best record for the first half of the season. (The Los Angeles Lakers hold the top spot, but because coach Phil Jackson led the All-Star squad last year, he’s ineligible to coach again this year.)

The distinction is another notch in Karl’s successful career, which has too often been overshadowed by disappointment, as 5280’s Robert Sanchez reported for the magazine in March 2009.

Karl will be joined at the game by Carmelo Anthony, who was named a Western Conference starter by fans.