One of the most esteemed honors in professional basketball, making an All-NBA team comes with not only salary incentives but also additional accolades on a player’s resume.
The NBA unveiled their 2018 All-NBA Teams and though the All-Rookie Teams and All-Defensive Teams were largely accurate, there were surely some questionable parts of the All-NBA selections. Unsurprisingly, James Harden and LeBron James were both unanimous selections for the first team and as the MVP frontrunners shouldn’t have expected anything less. Both made it for the second straight year while this is LeBron’s 11th straight first team.
Along with James Harden and LeBron, Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, and Kevin Durant complete the first team. Though Durant and Davis were virtual locks as well, the Damian Lillard appearance on first team raised eyebrows but ultimately also makes sense. Russell Westbrook’s Thunder underwhelmed this season and Stephen Curry was in and out of Golden State’s lineup with various injuries, setting the stage for Lillard to secure his first first-team All-NBA honors.
The second team boasts 2017 MVP Russell Westbrook and the volume-scoring DeMar DeRozan in the backcourt, both of whom earned higher votes than the aforementioned Stephen Curry. The second team frontcourt is comprised of Giannis Antetokounmpo, LaMarcus Aldridge and breakout second year center Joel Embiid.
The third team is where we find Stephen Curry along with Most Improved Player candidate Victor Oladipo. The two forwards on the third team are two-way mavens Paul George and Jimmy Butler with the 22-year-old Karl Anthony-Towns at center.
You can see the entire voting numbers and other players who received votes below.
Here are the 2017-18 All-NBA teams pic.twitter.com/5eWtWSZ848
— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) May 24, 2018
