Kevin Durant was the only unanimous All-NBA first team selection when the vote was revealed on Wednesday. LeBron James was on 124 of 125 All-NBA first team ballots, with Chris Sheridan being the only voter not to include him on the first team. Instead, Sheridan picked Durant and Blake Griffin as his two forwards and has taken a lot of heat for his pick, as well he should.
Sheridan wrote a post on his website to defend his selection and explained that he put Durant and Griffin 1-2 in his MVP voting, which is why he had them on the first team All-NBA. Here’s part of his reasoning:
And by the way, Griffin got my second-place MVP vote because he was a rock over the course of the season for a Clippers team that posted more victories (57) then the two-time defending champion Heat (54). And they did it in a tougher conference.
Blake Griffin had a fantastic season and showed tremendous improvement as a player. He really developed a good jump shot and rounded out his game. He was deserving of an All-NBA selection, but not over LeBron James and Kevin Durant. That’s why all the other voters had KD and LeBron on the first team.
LeBron is the best player in the NBA and that’s just the simple truth. To not include him on the first team All-NBA is inexcusable. It’s even worse when you consider there are two forward positions and you still leave him off. There wasn’t any justification for the selection, Sheridan.
