Anthony Davis might just be destined to a career in which he never receives his plaudits defensively.
Given his performance in the 2024 Olympics, it sure seemed like Anthony Davis would finally get his flowers for his defensive skill. He was dominant on that end of the floor, leading to him closing nearly every close game Team USA played, including the gold medal contest against France.
It took all of less than two weeks for us to go right back to the same old same old.
Earlier this week as part of their summer forecast series, ESPN revealed their predictions for each individual major award winner. As it pertains to Anthony Davis, the Defensive Player of the Year standings were most notable.
And boy, wouldn’t you know it, we’ve learned absolutely nothing.
Victor Wembanyama was first in voting which, I mean, fair. Following that, it was Rudy Gobert, Bam Adebayo and then AD.
Adding insult to injury, AD was the only person in the top seven who did not even receive a first-place vote. Each of Mikal Bridges, Jrue Holiday and Joel Embiid (?!?!?) received first-place votes.
I mean, really, guys? You just watched the Olympics and this is what we’re doing? I know international basketball is different than the NBA, but we just watched AD, not Bam, be the best defensive player on Team USA and it wasn’t close.
And the Gobert debate is exhausting at this point. Each year, he’s built up as the best defender in the regular season and then he’s nullified to varying degrees in the playoffs. It’s especially frustrating for Lakers fans who watch AD elevate to another level on both ends of the floor in the postseason only to go through this whole charade over and over again.
If you want the flip side of a small positive, AD was at least mentioned as a possible MVP candidate, though he finished eighth and wasn’t given any first-place votes.
Somehow, though, this disrespect to AD’s defense isn’t even limited to the NBA as we barely even discussed the fact he wasn’t named the best defensive player at the Olympics by FIBA, either.
Is this peak offseason content? Yes. Is this meaningless in the grand scheme of things? Yes. Are we going to get annoyed by it because it’s August and we have nothing else to discuss? Absolutely.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.
