My interpretation of the Defensive Player of the Year award is that it goes to the best defensive player in the NBA. I guess my understanding of the award could be wrong, but unless I’m missing something, Marc Gasol not being named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team is preposterous.
I realize that the media votes on the Defensive Player of the Year award, and the coaches vote on the All-Defensive Teams; but doesn’t this undermine the value of the award? What is the media seeing that the coaches aren’t? What flaws are the coaches seeing in Gasol’s defensive game that the media isn’t?
It isn’t like Gasol missed out on the First Team by a few votes either. Gasol received 12 total points on the ballot. Joakim Noah AND Tyson Chandler received 24 points apiece and shared the center spot on the First Team.
So what’s wrong here? According to the media, Gasol was the best overall defender in the league this year, but according to the coaches, he was the third best defensive center (fourth if you count Tim Duncan as a center; he received 20 points) in the NBA.
How can there be such a discrepancy? The Defensive Player of the Year only received half as many points as the other guys? They were that much better than him?
Imagine if LeBron James didn’t make All-NBA First Team this season even after winning MVP. Gary Washburn, the Boston Globe reporter who voted for Carmelo Anthony instead of LBJ for MVP, was ripped apart for being the only person not to vote for James.
Seriously, think about the chaos that would ensue if LeBron was named to the All-NBA Second Team instead of the First.
It doesn’t make sense. If you win the Defensive Player of the Year award, you should be a guaranteed lock to make NBA All-Defensive First Team. No questions asked. You win the award, you get a spot on the first team.
This same occurrence happened last year as well. Tyson Chandler won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, but made All-Defensive Second Team while Dwight Howard made All-Defensive First Team. It doesn’t make sense to me.
The only way to fix this problem is to have either the coaches or the media vote for both awards. For the second consecutive year, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year wasn’t voted to the All-Defensive First Team. If the either the coaches or the media vote for both, we’ll have a consistent evaluation across the board.
Clearly, the coaches see something while the media sees something else. I’m not sure which one is right, but the NBA has to do something to get everyone on the same page.
