Rondo And KG To All-Defensive 1st Team


The Boston Celtics' Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett have both been named to the NBA All-Defensive 1st Team. Rondo finished 2nd in overall votes to Orlando's Dwight Howard. Rajon and Garnett are joined by Dwight, Lebron, and Kobe to round out the NBA's top defensive honors. This is Rondo's third All-Defensive selection and his second time named to the 1st team. Kevin Garnett and Kobe are being named to their ninth 1st team selections, that ties the record with Jordan and Gary Payton.

Whether or not Kobe deserves 1st team votes is arguable, esspecially when former Celtic Tony Allen finished 4th in Defensive Player Of The Year voting. Never the less TA is the 2nd Team's top vote getter. He's joined by Chris Paul, Andre Iguodala, Tyson Chandler, and Joakim Noah.

The biggest problem I have with this is that Paul Pierce did not receive a single vote despite finishing 6th in the NBA for Defensive Win Shares. Joe Johnson actually received 2 points from the voting. How can anyone in the league think Joe Johnson deserves All-Defensive recognition without also praising Pierce? I'm not saying The Truth should be awarded as one of the leagues top defenders, but no one can argue that he at least deserves a single vote.

Hard to argue with the 10 Defensive Team selections, maybe they should be a few flips between first and 2nd teams (Kobe, TA), but overall I wouldn't mind going to war with these 10 guys.