Sekou Smith's reporting is in fact correct, as we now have official word that Joe Johnson will indeed represent the Hawks in the All-Star game this Sunday in Las Vegas.

I was in a rush to get the info posted earlier, so I will take a little more time to discuss what this means.

This, obviously, is huge for both Joe and the franchise. As many of us have discussed at length, it always seems like the Hawks are getting slighted in situations like these over the past few years - witness the lack of any participants in the Rookie-Sophomore game.

Obviously, some of it is understandable, as we haven't performed well enough to warrant a ton of consideration.

This year, however, is different. The Hawks are respectable. I realize the record shows 20-31, and that would seem to disagree with that assessment, but the fact is, if you take away the injury-laden stretch from mid-December to early January where the team fell off the pace, this year's squad is a .500 ballclub at worst. I realize that isn't award-winning, but it's enough to prove that we aren't the laughingstocks of the league. Beating teams like Phoenix and Detroit will do that for you.

Anyway, when Joe didn't originally get chosen to make the trip to Vegas, we were all disappointed, because anyone who has watched the Hawks over the course of the season knows how extremely valuable and talented he is. He may not show up on highlight reels very often, but you don't score 25+ a game without playing this game at an extremely high level.

So, though he will go in as an injury replacement, we all know he deserves to be there, and so do his peers. Kudos to Commissioner Stern for making the right choice under the circumstances.

Hopefully, this will be the last time he has to sneak in this way. Something tells me it probably will be.