The NBA’s All-Rookie team was announced on Tuesday afternoon, and the five players who earned first-team honors aren’t a surprise to anyone. What might be a surprise is that only two players — Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons and Utah’s Donovan Mitchell — earned unanimous first-team honors, while Boston’s Jayson Tatum missed out by one vote.
There’s no word on which player earned a first-team spot on the one ballot that relegated Tatum to the second-team, but it was still a bit surprising that this happened. Even though award voting happens before the postseason and Tatum’s been outstanding in the playoffs, Tatum was great during the regular season in his role for the Celtics.
Unsurprisingly, Brad Stevens had his rookie’s back when asked about Tatum’s exclusion from the group of unanimous selections. Stevens was asked about the subject on Tuesday afternoon and gave a tactful answer.
Brad Stevens on Jayson Tatum missing unanimous All-Rookie by one vote:
"Somebody made a mistake."
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) May 22, 2018
Tatum averaged 13.9 points and five rebounds in 30.5 minutes per game this year, showing signs of being a potential superstar as a wing scorer for years to come. He did all of this after Gordon Hayward went down minutes into Boston’s first game, potentially forcing him to take on a bigger role than anyone anticipated.
Of course, award voting is 100 percent silly and subjective, plus getting voted a first teamer by 99 of 100 people is quite the honor. Still, it’s nice to see that Stevens has his rookie’s back.
