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    Celtics All-Star Says Joel Embiid Deserved To Be On All-NBA First Team

    After recently being named to the 2021-22 All-NBA First Team, Boston Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum stated recently that Philadelphia 76ers Joel Embiid should have also received this honor.

    The end of season awards in the NBA always draw a lot of criticism due to the media voting for the winners and this season was no exception. Not only did Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid finish behind Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in the league’s MVP voting this year, but the 2021-22 scoring champion was also left off the All-NBA First Team, being voted to the Second Team instead.

    Many have gone to social media to give their take on Embiid being left off of the All-NBA First Team and on Wednesday afternoon ahead of his team’s Game 5 in the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum talked about his All-NBA selection with the media.

    Not only did Tatum state that he is thankful and grateful for this honor of being named to the All-NBA First Team, but he also went on to talk about some of the flaws in the system.

    The Celtics’ All-Star told reporters that the All-NBA teams should be "positionless" and that does not make much sense Embiid finished second in MVP voting, yet he did not make the All-NBA First team, this according to The Athletic’s Jay King.

    Finishing the season averaging 30.6 points (1st in NBA), 11.7 rebounds (5th in NBA), 1.5 blocks (9th in NBA) and shooting 49.9% from the floor, Joel Embiid had arguably the greatest season of his career and he become the first center to lead the league in scoring since Shaquille O’Neal did so during the 1999-00 season, a year in which Shaq won MVP.

    Nikola Jokic had a tremendous season in Denver yet again, which is one of the main reasons he won the league’s MVP award this season, but it is really hard to say that Joel Embiid was not one of the Top-5 players in the NBA this year.

    The All-NBA lists are meant to highlight the best of the best in the league for a specific season and while you could make a case for Nikola Jokic to be the best overall talent in the league over the course of the 2021-22 season, Joel Embiid would be right behind him and this was reflected in the MVP voting.

    Jayson Tatum, a player that was voted to this year’s All-NBA First Team, sees Joel Embiid as a First Team talent, which is why the NBA should possibly start giving more power to the players in these awards’ voting process.

    Being named to the All-NBA Second Team, this is the fourth time in the last five seasons that Embiid has been left off of the All-NBA First Team. 

    • NBA Announces 2021-22 All-NBA Teams: The All-NBA First, Second and Third Teams were all revealed by the NBA on Tuesday during TNT’s broadcast of the Western Conference Finals. CLICK HERE.
    • 2022 NBA Mock Draft 1.0 - Post-Combine Edition: The 2022 NBA Draft is less than a month away now, which means it is time to start taking a look at who could end up where in Brett Siegel’s 2022 NBA Mock Draft 1.0! CLICK HERE.
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