Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo makes unanimous All-NBA First Team, Khris Middleton snubbed
By Adam McGee
With All-NBA teams announced, there were mixed fortunes for the Milwaukee Bucks, with Giannis Antetokounmpo a unanimous pick, and Khris Middleton snubbed.
As the NBA continued its never-ending, prolonged awards roll-out, there was mixed fortunes for the Milwaukee Bucks in terms of Wednesday’s news.
There had been real hope, and reason to believe, that the Bucks would have their outstanding regular season play rewarded with two players earning All-NBA honors, but that turned out not to be the case.
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To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Defensive Player of the Year and likely soon-to-be two-time MVP was named to the All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
Even more impressively, Antetokounmpo was a unanimous pick for the First Team, joining LeBron James as the only two players to receive 100 first team votes for this season.
Along with Antetokounmpo and James, James Harden, Luka Doncic, and Anthony Davis rounded out the All-NBA First Team.
The All-NBA Second Team consisted of Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam, and Nikola Jokic.
It was on the Third Team, though, that Khris Middleton was widely expected to give the Bucks another honoree, and yet that reveal only led to disappointment for the Charleston native and from a Bucks’ perspective more generally.
The Third Team was made up of Russell Westbrook, Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum, and Rudy Gobert.
As the full voting breakdowns were revealed, Middleton’s exclusion became a wider source of debate and discussion among NBA analysts and fans alike.
Middleton earned a total of 82 points in the voting, surpassing the total of Third Team backcourt duo Westbrook (56) and Simmons (61), and yet due to positional categorization he still managed to miss out.
That makes for a disappointment as it’s no slight on Middleton to say he may never have another season as deserving of All-NBA consideration again. It’s well-documented that Middleton narrowly missed out on finishing the season in the 50-40-90 club, but doing so while also averaging 20.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.3 assists, playing stellar defense, and contributing to the team with the clear best record is a phenomenal achievement.
Sadly for Middleton, it’s gone unrewarded in spite of the fact his case was objectively stronger than that of Westbrook, Simmons, and arguably even Butler in the regular season context for which the teams were voted on.
Outside of Middleton and Antetokounmpo, there was also another Buck who earned a somewhat surprising solitary vote, with Brook Lopez winning over a single voter for a spot on their All-NBA Third Team ballot.
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To zoom out and put Giannis’ latest selection into the context of Bucks history, the Greek superstar joins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only Milwaukee player to earn multiple First Team selections.