LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, James Harden Headline 2017 All-NBA Teams
James Harden and Russell Westbrook were in a heated one-two race for MVP throughout the 2016-17 regular season, but they shared the spotlight Thursday when they both nabbed First Team All-NBA honors.
LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and Anthony Davis round out the prestigious starting five, while Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant headline the Second Team.
The complete rosters, as voted on by members of the media, can be viewed below, courtesy of Bleacher Report's Howard Beck:
Based on their record-setting regular seasons, it should come as no surprise that Harden and Westbrook waltzed their way into First Team selections.
For Harden—who was also a First Team All-NBA selection in 2014 and '15—the honor comes after he averaged 29.1 points, a league-high 11.2 assists and 8.1 rebounds during a season that saw the Rockets romp their way to 55 wins.
According to Basketball-Reference.com, Harden joined Oscar Robertson as the only players in league history to average at least 29 points, 11 dimes and eight boards for an entire season.
Westbrook, though, shares a more notable designation with Robertson after he became the second player in NBA history to average a triple-double (31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists per game). He also set the single-season triple-double record with 42.
Westbrook was also lauded for shouldering an unprecedented workload for an Oklahoma City Thunder team that lost Kevin Durant in free agency and appeared headed for a year trapped in Western Conference purgatory.
The Thunder outscored opponents by 3.3 points per 100 possessions when Westbrook was on the floor. When he sat, they were outscored by 8.9 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com's lineup data.
Not to be overlooked is LeBron, who continued to produce historically significant figures en route to a record-tying 11th First Team selection.
James averaged 26.4 points, 8.7 assists and 8.6 rebounds while shooting 54.8 percent from the field. As a result, he joined Robertson (1962-63) and Michael Jordan (1988-98) as the only players to produce those per-game averages while knocking down better than 50 percent of his shots over the course of a full campaign.
Finally, it's worth shining a spotlight on Leonard—who has picked up First Team honors two years running and is now in line for a big raise, according to The Vertical's Bobby Marks:
A two-way stud who finished the season with the fourth most win shares (13.6) and a career-best scoring average (25.5 points per game), Leonard was the driving force behind a Spurs team that powered its way to 61 wins and a Southwest Division crown.
As Sports Illustrated's Andrew Sharp wrote, "Leonard isn't just the most complete player in the NBA—he might be the best player, period (and also the MVP)."
And while First Team snubs on the wing like Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jimmy Butler had worthy cases, to be sure, they had to settle for second (and in some cases third) billing in a year defined by historic brilliance and unparalleled individual dominance.
