DeMar DeRozan over Stephen Curry for All-NBA second team? Not so fast
By Jelani Scott
DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors edged Stephen Curry for a spot on the All-NBA second team, the league announced on Thursday.
The results suggest that there was more flip-flopping from voters on their pick than Drake’s for a favorite team but, in the end, one All-Star edged out the other…it just, unfortunately, wasn’t the right one.
OK so obviously you won’t see any NBA franchises hanging All-NBA team selections in the rafters but to say that they don’t matter would be like pretending “rapper” Lil Xan didn’t call Tupac “boring” earlier this year.
It’s like, “Yeah, OK that’s a thing that happened once. No big deal” but, the more you think about everything that went into this ‘thing’ becoming a reality, you start to realize that there’s some weight to it.
At the time of this writing, Stephen Curry and DeMar DeRozan are on two completely different trajectories these days, four months and some change after both were named Players of the Week on January 8. Freaky, huh?
The former is attempting to topple the Houston Rockets to reach the NBA Finals while the latter is watching him do so from his couch. And yet, the California native, if only for a short period of time, can say that he has one-upped the two-time MVP from North Carolina who now has five All-NBA nods.
DeRozan became only the second Raptor, alongside UNC alum and NBA legend Vince Carter, to be selected to multiple All-NBA teams and that is an accomplishment worth celebrating.
However, when you further dissect the numbers behind this decision, you can’t help but question DeRozan’s seat next to “Vinsanity” and Chris Bosh as the only Raptors to make the second team.
It would be unfair to say that DeRozan flat out shouldn’t have made any All-NBA teams (you would have to be blind to suggest that) but when you’re dealing with results that look like this:
The All-NBA teams. pic.twitter.com/ZYH2Vpbm0f
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) May 24, 2018
You can’t help but ask the question: is it possible that this one vote differential between DeRozan (165) and Curry (164) actually means that the incorrect choice was made?
It’s a shame that these All-NBA teams don’t offer sixth man spots because if they did this wouldn’t even be an issue. Nevertheless, let’s attempt to get to the bottom of this inquiry, shall we?