Back in April, Chris Sheridan wrote that he was going to vote to place LeBron James in the Second Team All-NBA which caused some grief because LeBron is the best player in the world and those guys usually make it to the First Team.
In fact, Sheridan ended up being the only voter who placed LeBron in the Second Team. So, how does the planet’s best basketball player get stuck on the All-NBA B-Squad? Sheridan explained his thought process like this:
First of all, the All-NBA ballot must include a center, two forwards and two guards on each of the three All-NBA teams. Second, I voted Kevin Durant first and Blake Griffin second on my MVP ballot. And since both are forwards, there was no room at the inn for LeBron.
Hey, that’s the way it is in a crowded house.
And by the way, Griffin got my second-place MVP vote because he was a rock over the course of the season for a Clippers team that posted more victories (57) then the two-time defending champion Heat (54). And they did it in a tougher conference.
So there.
Of course, measures of greatness are arbitrary but it looks like Sheridan simply looked up the win-loss record of each team, looked at where each team was placed geographically and then called it a night. Yes, the Eastern Conference is pitifully weak and the Clippers won more games than the Heat.
However, there are plenty of other mitigating factors. Blake did carry the Clippers on his back while Chris Paul was out with injury but Paul is better than anyone that LeBron has on his squad (including Wade and Bosh). Los Angeles also has a much deeper bench which means that, on an average night, LeBron is much more important to the Heat than Griffin is to the Clippers.
LeBron’s stats are better as well. 27.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game versus Blake’s 24.1 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists is a bit of a push given that each player affects the game differently but the advanced stats lean heavily towards James. Lebron is superior to Griffin in PER (29.3 to 23.9), Offensive Rating (121 to 114), Defensive Rating (105 to 103) and Win Shares (15.9 to 12.2).
But hey, the Clippers won more games and therefore Griffin > James.
Perhaps Sheridan meant that Blake has better commercials than LeBron, in which case he has a much stronger argument. The LeBron app has nothing on this:
There’s no escaping Blake Griffin, if you can’t beat em, join em..
Western Conference Adidas NBA Blake Griffin #32 2014 All Star Replica Jersey XL
