Another NBA first for Coach Karl? [UPDATED WITH CORRECTIONS]

As all Nuggets fans know, Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson will start in today's NBA All-Star Game, marking the first time since 1988 that two Nuggets started in the mid-season affair. As far as I can tell, no team in NBA history featuring two All-Star starters has ever missed the playoffs. Could the 2007-08 Nuggets be the first? If so, surely this factoid will be added to George Karl's list of basketball implosions, to be featured here in a few days.

Side Note: The previous two Nuggets' All-Star starters were Alex English and Lafayette "Fat" Lever. In addition to starting in the All-Star Game, English and Lever led the Nuggets to their only 50+ win season in the past 20 years with a 54-win effort, and one of only two franchise first round playoff series victories in the same time span (the other being when the 8th-seeded Nuggets defeated the 1st-seeed SuperSonics coached by you-know-who in 1994).

CORRECTION: As one of my readers Shane pointed out, Steve Francis and Yao Ming started in the 2003 All-Star Game, and yet the Houston Rockets missed the playoffs. This is a glaring error on my part, as I try to keep this site factual at all costs. I'm stunned as to how I missed this. I think we can agree its very rare to a) have two All-Star starters on the same team and b) miss the playoffs when you have two All-Star starters on the same team. Again, I've gone back and done some research, and as far as I can tell, Karl would be the second coach ever to miss the playoffs having two All-Stars on his team. My bad!