NBA: 3 biggest snubs from the 2020-21 All-NBA rosters

All-NBA snubs: Zion Williamson

I thought about Zion’s season and most of all his style of play. Catch the ball, make one quick move, get to the basket, score. It’s super elementary and simple as far as style, but with his strength and athleticism, it’s unstoppable. He’s not trying to hide it either, he doesn’t mix it up, or play outside of his game. It’s almost like he’s daring you to stop him. As a defender, you can try, you can also know full well what he’s going to do, but you can’t stop it.

Being able to get where you want to go and be effective against other professional athletes, that know what you’re going to do is one of the most incredible things I’ve seen a player do. It’s similar to New York Mets ace, Jacob DeGrom. For those who don’t know DeGrom is the most dominant pitcher in the MLB.

To keep it simple, his game is, throw hard, throw up in the zone so the batter can’t catch up, repeat. He just throws high fastballs that batters can’t keep up with. Not a baseball fan? Okay, do you remember William Perry? Otherwise known as the “The Fridge”. Former Chicago Bears defensive lineman back in the day. The guy was so massive that whenever the Bears would be in a goal-line situation, they would put this monster of a man in at running back and let him punch it in the end zone. Think about the confidence you must have to put that guy in a goal-line situation. The defense knew he was getting the ball, it didn’t matter! Zion is the same way!

Here’s the case for Zion. Other than his dominance that I eluded to above, he’s got the stats to back it up. He’s top 10 field goal percentage (61.1%), 3rd in free throw attempts (8.7), and 8th overall in scoring (27 PPG). he averages more points and rebounds than the other two All NBA Third Team Forwards (Paul George & Jimmy Butler). So what’s the problem? This should be a no brainer? Well, unfortunately for Zion, I think he was snubbed for two reasons.

First, I think the voters were reluctant to give such a young player an All-NBA honor. On account of, he’s young and they feel he’ll get better and have plenty of chances in the future. As opposed to some of the older players who are deserved but have fewer chances. That’s my speculation. Zion is only 20 years of age and in his second year.

Second, he didn’t have the team success. Which normally I would say is fair. I’m not a big proponent of rewarding “good stats, bad team” type of players. Here’s the thing, with Zion it’s different. He wasn’t decent on a good team, then gets signed/traded, and then puts up high numbers on a bad team. No, Zion was drafted number one overall to a franchise that has put the strangest assortment of talent around him. The New Orleans Pelicans record doesn’t reflect how Zion played. It was no fault of his own. So I wonder if this is sort of the, “guilty because you’re the best player for a bad team snub”.

The last point I’ll make on Zion’s behalf is this, I assure you that Zion is not the problem in New Orleans. Therefore, I feel it is unfair that he is left off of at the least one of the all NBA teams based on the fact that he simply was one of the top 15 players in the league this year without question.