The NBA announced its Kia All-NBA teams on Sunday, and Victor Wembanyama was one of five players named to the First Team ahead of the Thunder’s meeting with the Spurs in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cade Cunningham, Luka Dončić and Nikola Jokić joined him on the top group.
The timing put the spotlight on San Antonio on a day when the league’s awards release landed alongside playoff stakes. Wembanyama was named on 99 ballots for First Team, while Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokić were unanimous selections on 100 out of 100 ballots, underscoring how strongly both players were viewed by the voting panel.
Brown, Brunson, Durant, Leonard and Mitchell filled out the Second Team. Tyrese Maxey, Jamal Murray, Jalen Johnson, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Duren made the Third Team, and all five received All-NBA recognition for the first time. Brown’s selection was his second All-NBA honor, while Durant reached 12 All-NBA selections, making him the 12th player to hit that mark. Leonard became a seven-time All-NBA pick, and Brunson and Mitchell each added a third selection.
The process is decided by a media voting panel without regard to position, with players earning five points for each First Team vote, three for Second Team and one for Third Team. That system produced a wide spread of honors, but it also left some of the league’s biggest names off the ballot entirely because of availability rules.
James was among the players ineligible to receive votes because he did not play enough games, ending one of the league’s longest active streaks of recognition. It was just the second time in his 23-season career that he was not an All-NBA pick. Curry and Antetokounmpo were also ruled out under the 65-game rule, and Antetokounmpo’s run of appearing on every All-NBA ballot for eight consecutive years came to an end.
Elsewhere in the league’s award rollout, VJ Edgecombe, Dylan Harper and Cedric Coward joined Flagg and Knueppel on the Kia All-Rookie First Team. Wembanyama and Holmgren were also the two leading vote-getters on the Kia NBA All-Defensive First Team, reinforcing how much the league’s latest awards cycle centered on two-way impact at the top of the standings and on the edge of the postseason.
For the Spurs, the headline is not just that Wembanyama made First Team. It is that he did it in the middle of a playoff series, with the league’s award voters placing him among the NBA’s five most valued players while San Antonio was still playing meaningful basketball in May.
