The NBA’s All-NBA Teams were just released and to be sure, they caused a lot of conversation among fans. Many people(rightfully I may add) asked questions like: Why was DeAndre Jordan 1st Team All-NBA? Why was James Harden not on ANY All-NBA teams? & Why was Kevin Durant not 1st Team All-NBA? However, one question that I do not see many, if any people talking about from the voting, was that four voters left LeBron James out of their 1st Team. Yes, not one, not two, not three, but FOUR people who have the ONE job of placing the best basketball players onto three 5-man teams left the best player in the world out of their 1st Team. How the hell is this even possible? You know what, let me take a quick break to gather myself over this to see if it’ll be any less stupid afterwards.
*takes sip of water*
*saves a group of puppies from a burning building*
Okay I’m back, AND IT’S STILL JUST AS STUPID AS BEFORE.
The four voters who left LeBron off of their 1st Team were Steve Holman(@RealVoiceofHawk), Candace Buckner(@CandaceDBuckner), Jeff McDonald(@JMcDonald_SAEN), and Brian Davis(no twitter). These four MORONS left off LeBron James, who averaged 25.3 PPG / 7.4 RPG / 6.8 APG / 52.0% FG, in favor of Kawhi Leonard or Draymond Green. KAWHI F’IN LEONARD AND DRAYMOND F’IN GREEN. You wanna know how many times in his career Kawhi Leonard has had 25 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists on 52%+ FG in a game? ONCE. Draymond? TWICE. Again, that is what LeBron AVERAGED this season, a season in which he played the fewest MPG of any season in his career. For the record, I’m not mentioning Kevin Durant since he should’ve been the other 1st Team Forward w/ LeBron. In what universe are Kawhi Leonard or Draymond Green better than LeBron James at playing basketball? That is what these four IDIOTS said by leaving LeBron off their 1st Team. Before you say, “why does it even matter?”, think about this. These voters have ONE job, that is to watch the NBA and reward the best players for their performance during the season. I understand that not every decision in their situation is easy, but putting LeBron on 1st Team All-NBA IS easy, it’s actually criminal to NOT put LeBron on 1st Team All-NBA. To show how IDIOTIC these four voters were, let’s look at a few other stats comparing LeBron, Kawhi, & Draymond shall we?
Per 100 possessions:
LeBron James: 36.5 PTS / 10.7 REB / 9.8 AST / 52.0% FG
Kawhi Leonard: 32.8 PTS / 10.6 REB / 4.0 AST / 50.6% FG
Draymond Green: 19.5 PTS / 13.2 REB / 10.3 AST / 49.0% FG
Points scored + assisted on per game(Points scored + assisted on/games played):
LeBron James: 3,182 / 76 = 41.9 PS+PA per game
Kawhi Leonard: 1,948 / 72 = 27.1 PS+PA per game
Draymond Green: 2,533 / 81 = 31.3 PS+PA per game
Points scored + assisted on per minute played(Points scored + assisted on/minutes played):
LeBron James: 3,182 / 2,709 = 1.18 PS+PA per minute played
Kawhi Leonard: 1,948 / 2,380 = 0.82 PS+PA per minute played
Draymond Green: 2,533 / 2,808 = 0.90 PS+PA per minute played
LeBron FAR outclasses Kawhi & Draymond on a per possession basis, a per game basis, and even a per minute basis.
Now this about the time you hear Draymond and ESPECIALLY Kawhi supporters say, “WELL WHAT ABOUT DEFENSE THO?!?!? DURR!!! LEBRON DOESN’T PLAY DEFENSE ANYMORE DUR!!!” Again, more lies. Is it wrong to say Kawhi & Draymond are better defenders in 2016 than LeBron? No. Is it wrong to say their defense makes them more deserving of a 1st Team nod over LeBron? 100% YES. The idea that LeBron has become some sieve on the defensive end is one of the worst narratives in basketball. LeBron may not be the dominant defender night in and night out that he was at his peak several years ago, but he’s no Steve Nash or James Harden on that end either. Even though there is no perfect stat to measure just how good a player is defensively, the defensive stats that are available paint LeBron’s defense in a positive light. LeBron’s Defensive Real Plus/Minus(DRPM) was 6th among all NBA forwards. LeBron’s Defensive Box Score Plus/Minus(DBPM) was 14th out of 113 Forwards who qualified. Opponents also shot 7.3% WORSE from the field than their usual FG% during the regular season when LeBron was their primary defender. *Sips tea*
Another flawed argument in this circumstance is, “BUT KAWHI & DRAYMOND’S TEAMS WON MORE GAMES THAN LEBRON’S TEAM”. I guess we’ll just ignore the fact that Draymond was playing alongside the unanimous MVP Stephen Curry all year long. I’m sure that had nothing to do with the Warriors winning 73 games, it was mostly Draymond. As for Kawhi, I’ve touched on this before in previous articles, the Spurs went 7-3 in the 10 regular season games he missed this year whereas LeBron’s team went a putrid 1-5 in games without him. But statistics aside, All-NBA teams are supposed to reward the best INDIVIDUAL players for that particular season. If you wanted to making a starting 5 of players from the team with the best record then just make the entire Golden State Warriors starting 5 the All-NBA 1st Team.
Overall, the four voters who left LeBron off of their 1st Team All-NBA should be ashamed and be stripped of their voting privileges for the rest of their lives. It’s unacceptable and each of them deserve all the slander and hate that they will be getting for their decision. I’m just hopeful that this article will expose a little more light on just how dumb their decisions were.
