
With LeBron James moving to the Los Angeles Lakers, the imbalance of the NBA continues. We’re not even talking about the how the Golden State Warriors got scarier with their pick up of DeMarcus Cousins, but conference-wise, the East has slowly and surely weakened over the last decade.
To further highlight this, we wanted to share this this list of players that highlights the disparity in talent between the Eastern and Western Conferences. Below are the active players who’ve been named to the All-NBA First Team, by the conference they’ll be playing in at the beginning of the 2018-19 NBA season:
| Player | Current Team | Last All-NBA |
|---|---|---|
| Joakim Noah | New York | 2014 |
| Dwight Howard | Washington | 2012 |
| Dwyane Wade | Miami | 2010 |

Remember this? LOL
| Player | Current Team | Last All-NBA |
|---|---|---|
| Damian Lillard | Portland | 2018 |
| Anthony Davis | New Orleans | 2018 |
| LeBron James | Los Angeles | 2018 |
| Kevin Durant | Golden State | 2018 |
| James Harden | Houston | 2018 |
| Russell Westbrook | Oklahoma City | 2017 |
| Kawhi Leonard | San Antonio | 2017 |
| Stephen Curry | Golden State | 2016 |
| DeAndre Jordan | Dallas | 2016 |
| Marc Gasol | Memphis | 2015 |
| Chris Paul | Houston | 2014 |
| Derrick Rose | Minnesota | 2012 |
| Dirk Nowitzki | Dallas | 2009 |
For those counting, that’s 13 active first-team all-NBA players in the West compared to the three for the East. On top of that, we added a column noting when the players last made the team. Every player on the last four All-NBA First Teams are now in the Western Conference.

The last time an Eastern Conference player was on the All-NBA First Team was Joakim Noah in 2014 when he played for the Chicago Bulls. Noah basically sat out the entire season for the New York Knicks. The other two are Dwight Howard and Dwyane Wade, who made the team last in 2012 and 2010 respectively.
We were curious to dig deeper so we looked at the all the active MVPs and what conference they’re in, and shockingly, all active MVPs (Harden, James, Curry, Durant, Westbrook, Rose and Nowitzki) are in the Western Conference.
Does the number of All-NBA First Teamers or MVPs tell the whole story? No, but as superstars go, so do their teams and by that measure, the West will be stacked again.