Basketball Awards, NBA

With LeBron on Lakers, the NBA’s MVPs and majority of First Team players are in the West

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.

Visited 17 times, 1 visit(s) today

Leave a Comment