All-NBA Teams Announced with LeBron James as Lead Vote Getter

According to CBS-Local, the NBA has just announced its All-NBA teams for the 2012 season.  Not surprisingly, Lebron James of the Miami Heat and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder were the leading vote-getters. 

They have been selected to the All-NBA First Team alongside Center Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic and guards Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Notably, Chris Paul, who helped resurrect the franchise from cellar dweller to championship contender, is the first Los Angeles Clipper to receive an All-NBA First Team honor in the team's history.

The All-NBA Second Team consists of forwards Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers, center Andrew Bynum of the Los Angeles Lakers, and guards Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs and Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder. 

Kevin Love is the only player who made any All-NBA team whose team had a losing record in the regular season.  However, before both Love and his rookie phenom teammate point guard Ricky Rubio were injured, Minnesota was bordering around .500 and very much in the playoff hunt. 

The All-NBA third team consists of forwards Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks and Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks, center Tyson Chandler of the New York Knicks, and guards Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics and Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat. 

The year of the point guard was 2012, and the All-NBA selections took this into account.  Notably, four point guards—Paul, Westbrook, Rondo and Parker—were selected to only two shooting guards, Bryant and Wade.  And in the case of Bryant and Wade, both are more "combo-guards" than pure shooting guards; they shift between scoring and play making responsibilities. 

There are, as always, arguable snubs from the All-NBA teams. 

Several guards were not selected to an All-NBA team by way of there simply not being enough spots given the NBA's depth at this position.  Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns is the most notable snub: He averaged 12.7 PPG and 10.7 APG on 53 percent FG, lead an otherwise talent poor Phoenix Suns squad to playoff contention.   

A more appalling snub is the NBA's failure to recognize Atlanta Hawks' Josh Smith as an All-Third Team selection.  Smith had a monster year averaging 19 PPG and 10 RPG along with 1.8 blocked shot a game.

He's widely considered one of the league's best defenders and lead the Atlanta Hawks to the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. 

However, Carmelo Anthony was selected instead as an NBA All-Third Team forward, even though Anthony shot only 43 percent from the field and averaged a nine year low 22.6 points per game.  The Knicks finished 7th in the Eastern Conference and lost to the Miami Heat 4-1 in the first round of the NBA playoffs. 

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