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Bradley Beal is playing the best basketball of his life.

The eighth-year veteran is averaging career highs in points (28.7, sixth in the NBA), assists (6.4), free throw attempts (7.9) and free throw makes (6.7).

But despite being selected an All-Star each of the last two seasons, Beal was denied an invitation to Chicago for 2019-20.

Maybe it’s because he’s shooting a career-low .325 from three (which honestly makes his career-high in points that much more impressive). Maybe it’s because he missed seven games due to injury when he played all 82 the past two seasons.

Or maybe — and most likely — Bradley Beal was failed by a faulty selection process and is unlucky to play in the East. Maybe if he played in the West, we wouldn’t be having this “snub” conversation right now.

NBA All-Stars are determined by two means of selection.

Starters are selected by three voting pools: fans (50 percent), media (25 percent) and players (25 percent). A weighted score is calculated from those votes, and — in the case of Eastern Conference guards — the top two players are determined to be starters.

Reserves are chosen by the coaches. Conference coaches pick their top seven players, and the players with the most votes gain All-Star status.

Beal was voted the No. 2 guard in the East according to NBA players (behind Kemba Walker). But because he’s on a 16-31 Wizards squad, he suffered in the fan and media vote.

No worry. This is why we have the coaches’ vote, right? So players like Beal, who are highly respected by their peers, don’t go unrewarded.

Wrong.

In the Eastern Conference, coaches valued wins over stats. All of the players from the Eastern reserves are on teams in the top six of the conference. This included first-time All Stars Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat, Domantas Sabonis of the Indiana Pacers and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics.

In the West, coaches seem to care less about your team’s record. Brandon Ingram of the New Orleans Pelicans and Damian Lillard of the Portland Trailblazers were both selected despite their teams being outside of the playoff bracket. After all, the All-Star game is a showcase of the best players, not the best teams.

The rift in selection method between the Eastern coaches and Western coaches caused Beal himself to call the vote “disrespectful,” while his agent, Mark Bartelstein, regarded it as something more personal.

“He has gone and played his heart out every single night to try and make them (the Wizards) as competitive as they can be,” Bartelstein said, “and coaches have held it against him that he decided to stay the course with his team instead of jumping ship and joining someone’s bandwagon.”

Whether personal or not, Beal’s snub shows the All-Star selection process is a failure.

The NBA pivoted to this process in 2016-17 to stop the game from being a fan popularity contest. Yet, on February 16 in Chicago, one of the NBA’s best players will not join his peers on the floor for the All Star game and through no fault of his own.

That’s a damn shame.

Mark Stine is a contributing writer to Chomp Talk. Follow him on Twitter @mstinejr.