When the 2019 All-NBA teams were announced on Thursday there were very clear winners and losers. Because the league and NBPA decided to tie eligibility for the supermax extension to earning an All-NBA (and MVP and DPOY) nod, each year there are a handful of players that are very interested in the voting.
Kemba Walker and Damian Lillard earned that supermax eligibility this season, while Klay Thompson and Bradley Beal fell just shy of making it onto the third team, losing out on the possibility — Karl-Anthony Towns also lost out on a big contract incentive for not making it. Lillard will surely get the supermax, as it’s already reportedly been agreed upon, while Walker is a far more interesting case.
Beal and Thompson miss out on the chance to make many millions more, and that’s a tough pill to swallow. For Thompson, it would’ve also indicated just how important the Warriors franchise views him, as to whether they would’ve offered him the supermax or not, but now he’ll enter this summer facing a more even decision between Golden State and the others. Klay was not aware the All-NBA teams had been announced until he was alerted to it by the media on Thursday, and his initial reaction says it all.
Klay Thompson learns he didn’t make All-NBA (“Oh I didn’t?”) and is clearly a little ticked (it affects his next contract): “When you go to five straight Finals, it takes more than a couple All-NBA guys…Do I think there are that many guards better than me? No.” pic.twitter.com/bW5DiBavo1
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) May 23, 2019
Thompson tries to be diplomatic as he doesn’t want to completely dump on Walker, but you can tell he disagrees vehemently with the snub and feels he’s among the six best guards in the NBA. He goes on to say it doesn’t bother him too much because he has “rings” but he will miss out on the chance to earn a lot of money because of this, and that’ll upset anyone.
