San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama finished third in the All-NBA voting, behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokić, after receiving 99 of the possible 100 All-NBA First Team votes.
The result stunned the NBA world, with some puzzled about which individual moved the 7-foot-4 slotman to the second team.
Why Fans Are Divided Over Victor Wembanyama’s Lone All-NBA Second Team Vote
The NBA community had the man of the moment on Monday, after SiriusXM NBA Radio host Justin Termine spilled the beans on his podcast.
Termine admitted that he voted by position, placing Wembanyama on the second team at center and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić on the first team.
He claimed that Jokić was the better of the two centers this season and cited the 1994 voting, in which New York Knicks legend Patrick Ewing was left off the All-NBA Team, as support for his explanation, noting that his contemporaries Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and Shaquille O’Neal had better performances.
“So historically speaking, years from now people will look, and they’ll go, ‘Well, Wembanyama and Jokić made these many first teams, but why didn’t Patrick Ewing make this many?’” Termine remarked.
Termine’s statement drew criticism on social media, with national NBA insider Brett Siegel emphasizing the league’s current position on how the voting process should unfold.
“‘I vote by position.’ So you don’t follow the current day voting rules and regulations as one of the 100 media voters responsible for upholding the integrity of the voting process,” Siegel posted.
“The NBA changed the All-NBA rules to positionless so you wouldn’t have this problem.”
The NBA has gradually moved away from per-position criteria for selecting All-NBA Teams to align with the positionless structure the current era is projecting.
Another user suggested that NBA officials should remove Termine from All-NBA voting, effective next season. “No joke… take his vote away now.”
An NBA enthusiast expressed their resentment about Termine’s admission, writing: “They updated the voting criteria, and you chose to use the outdated criteria. You should be banned from voting.”
“This isn’t how All-NBA voting works anymore though. Somebody take his vote away,” another user urged.
One user echoed the suggestion to strike out Termine’s vote and noted a flaw in the All-NBA voting process.
“Clear flaw in the all NBA voting process is this: 1) they no longer vote by position, but this moron does for his silly reason of ‘history’; 2) you leave a deserving guy off, you get to make a video and get clicks! Take his vote @NBA 🫵,” they posted.
Social media hoops influencer with the handle SpursMuse also slammed Termine’s argument, stating, “So just to get this straight. You believe that *you* have a duty to protect older players in your present-day voting. You believe that your method and your logic is superior to the current rules and therefore ignore the current rules. The ego in legacy media is out of control.”
However, Termine’s view also received support, with NBA hoops observer @CornerSpurs claiming that the sports radio host’s comments were satisfying.
“I think this is fair reasoning. Don’t have an issue with it. Also, can’t expect Wemby to have everything unanimously now can we,” they wrote.
Illinois sports beat reporter Sunny Verma agreed with Termine’s view, writing, “…… I’m actually OK with this.”
A multi-sports enthusiast praised the host for having the courage to step forward and admit that he made the unpopular decision to relegate Wemby to the second team.
“This is fair, and at least he’s got the balls to publicly back his claims. Unlike a lot of other writers and talking heads,” they wrote.
While the statistics and the performances of every NBA star on the ballot are supplementary metrics for voters to cast their final verdicts, the process is still relatively subjective, especially when deciding which players deserve the First Team nod and which players deserve the Second and Third Team nods.
