NBA pundit Stephen A Smith snubbed one of the names to make the All-NBA first team after his ballot was released. Smith spent all season breaking down the NBA by hyping up names like Jaylen Brown and Cade Cunningham stepping up as breakout superstars. However, he ended up picking between them for his final spot of the five roster selections.
The following ballot was revealed as Stephen A’s voting order for the top five players of the past season:
First Place Vote: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder)
Second Place Vote: Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs)
Third Place Vote: Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets)
Fourth Place Vote: Jaylen Brown (Boston Celtics)
Fifth Place Vote: Luka Doncic (Los Angeles Lakers)
Smith did not cast a vote for Cunningham to make the first team, despite vouching for him all season. ESPN’s First Take featured Smith spending months claiming the Detroit Pistons are serious contenders and would be the team in the New York Knicks’ way. Detroit ended up failing in the postseason, but the awards are based on the regular season. Cunningham missing time due to a collapsed lung influenced Smith to pick five others above him.
Stephen A Smith Voted For His Rival
A new rivalry emerged for Stephen A during the past NBA season with Boston Celtics superstar Jaylen Brown. Smith spent the first few months of the season praising Brown, but the two ended up exchanging insulting comments to each other over the past few months.
Brown has made it clear he holds little respect for Smith and blames the reporter for pushing agendas that go against journalism and general league integrity. However, Smith still made sure to vote for Brown before things got uglier between the two following the Celtics’ early playoff elimination.
To his credit, Stephen A viewed Brown as an MVP candidate earlier in the season and made sure to honor his real thoughts with an All-NBA first team vote. Brown didn’t get among the top five votes from all voters to fall to the second team instead. Smith believed Brown and Luka Doncic deserved the last spots over Cunningham.
NBA Voters Rewarded Cade Cunningham
Smith snubbed Cunningham and felt he missed too much time at the end of the season. Cunningham’s stats also suffered a decline later in the season, but the same happened to Brown when Jayson Tatum returned to the Celtics lineup.
Other voters felt that Cunningham had to be included on the first team due to being the leader of the biggest overachieving team this season. Detroit finished with the top seed in the Eastern Conference and won 60 games, even though the offense was quite limited behind Cunningham.
The playoffs exposed just how little help Cunningham had compared to the other top teams in the league. Voters felt that Cade had to get rewarded for being the main reason a flawed team thrived all season. Smith felt the opposite and decided to make him the only one of the six top options that he voted against.
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