Was Tyson Chandler slighted with his All-Defensive Second Team selection? For the New York Knicks center, the second straight Second Team pick is nice— if not a bit perplexing— especially since he was already named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year.
Since that award is voted on by the media, the All-defensive Team honor comes from all 30 NBA coaches with one important rule— coaches can't vote for their own players.
Dwight Howard— who had won three DPOY awards prior to this season— was nominated to the first team in Chandler's place. He was joined by LeBron James and shot-blocking phenom Serge Ibaka and guards Chris Paul and Tony Allen.
Chandler was joined on the second team by Kevin Garnett, Luol Deng, Rajon Rondo and Kobe Bryant.
Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin was confused by the slight and even questioned the logic behind Chandler's snub via Twitter.
Lin tweeted: "im no genius or anything but someone explain how @tysonchandler is defensive player of the year but not make the nba all-defensive team."
He did go to Harvard.
Chandler did have more points (36 overall and 13 first-team votes) than both Allen and Paul, but since only one center can be nominated per team, the honor went to Howard (16 first-place and 41 overall points).
If it was any consolation to Chandler, his teammate rookie Iman Shumpert received honorable mention after getting one first-place vote and 13 overall.
Howard's team, the Orlando Magic actually regressed from one of the top-three defensive teams to No. 13 last season while Chandler helped turn the Knicks into defensive force.
