Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year last week. Today is was announced that he made the NBA's All-Defensive 2ND TEAM. Sound familiar? This happened to Knicks center Tyson Chandler. Makes a lot of sense huh.
NBA Head Coaches vote for All-Defensive Teams while Sportswriters and Broadcasters vote for Defensive Player of the Year.
Not only did Gasol not make the 1st Team, but it wasn't even all that close. Clearly the coaches don't agree with all the writers and broadcasters. Out of the 30 head coaches only 5 thought Gasol was worthy of the 1st Team and 2 felt he deserved 2nd Team honors. So 23 coaches didn't think he was a top 2 defensive center this year.
Throw in the fact that Tyson Chandler and Joakim Noah tied for 1st team honors, it allowed Gasol to grab a spot on the 2nd team, he should of, for all intents and purposes missed the whole thing.
What does this mean? Not much in the grand scheme of things. I enjoy the All-NBA teams and awards and stuff more than the average bear. Thought it was worth noting.
Best part of the voting actually was Mike James getting a 1st team vote. Quick, what team did Mike James play for this year?
My ballot would have been:
1st: Tony Allen, Avery Bradley, LeBron James, Paul George, Joakim Noah
2nd: Chris Paul,
Mike James, Mike Conley, Serge Ibaka, Andre Iguodala, Marc Gasol
