The NBA announces its postseason awards before the playoffs begin, and they include a major change that makes it one of the most nonsensical decisions not just in the NBA, but in all sports.
The 2023-24 season will be the first year to ignore position when it comes to All-NBA teams, and now they just put five players together and call it a “team” with nothing to actually back it up. At first glance, this leads to voting results that are completely meaningless.
I submitted my First Team All-NBA and here it is:
1. Jokic
2. Tatum
3. Branson
4. Doncic
5.SGA
continue…
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) April 16, 2024
Regardless of the fact that this is Perkins’ vote, it ignores the mind-boggling decision to discount Giannis Antetokounmpo, who became the first player in NBA history to average over 30 points per game on 60 percent shooting. However, both lists match perfectly. It’s valid and completely pointless at the same time.
But this is exactly what the NBA wanted by eliminating the position. The league didn’t want to deal with losing the No. 5 spot in the Nikola Jokic-Joel Embiid trade, especially with the looming rise of Victor Wembaneyama, and the league’s whims. I made this decision. This resulted in a concentration of talent in one position.
Embiid was disqualified from the team for missing games, and the entire issue the NBA was trying to solve never even surfaced this season. This will also have a trickle-down effect on the remaining year-end awards. That’s because the All-NBA second team is simply the best players ranked 6-10, and the third team is 11-15.
It would be the same as putting multiple quarterbacks on the NFL’s All-Pro team simply because you want everyone to feel valued.The problem is historically everytime It was a cruel choice to choose the “best” player at each position, and that’s the way it should be.
From 1959 to 1968, voters had to decide between Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell for the center spot, and the two went back and forth for All-NBA first team honors, and then The score was second team. This happened again in the early 90s, with David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon taking fifth place.
LeBron James’ overwhelming dominance since the late 2000s has forced dozens of talented players to play in LeBron’s shadow and miss out on the top team — but this is it. This is the point where position is important.
A first-team All-NBA selection is supposed to be a time capsule of that season’s basketball. Just like we do now, it’s an opportunity to look back at glorious teams from the past and compare talent between positions. The 1992-93 team of Mark Price/Michael Jordan/Charles Barkley/Karl Malone/Hakeem Olajuwon becomes the 2012-13 team of Chris Paul/Kobe Bryant/LeBron James/Kevin Durant. This is a unique opportunity to have an interesting discussion about whether we can win or not. Tim Duncan.
That’s not possible with a loose group of the best players, regardless of position. In 20 or 30 years, it will be nearly impossible to assess where players in the current era were strong or weak without spending rotation time to figure out who played where.
All-NBA teams should be TEAM. Wild concept, I know. If you strive to make everyone feel special, nothing will be special.
