The 2025-26 All-NBA teams were announced on Sunday, and for once the headlines were about who fell short rather than who made it. MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama headlined the First Team alongside Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham — all five top-five finishers in MVP voting. Jaylen Brown led the Second Team after a career-best season; Tyrese Maxey paced the Third.
On ESPN's First Take, the verdict was that the voters largely got it right — with one asterisk. "I don't really think there were much controversial decisions in this particular group," Brian Windhorst said, before zeroing in on the squeeze for the final First-Team spot. Doncic and Cunningham were granted eligibility despite not reaching the 65-game threshold, while Brown played his 65 and still missed out. "If something was wronged, it was that Jaylen Brown did play 65 games and those other guys didn't," Windhorst said.
The margin behind the cut was close but not razor-thin: Cunningham collected 60 First-Team votes to Brown's 44. Windhorst's defence of Cunningham leaned on Detroit's season — a 60-win, top-seeded year in the East, with Cunningham going 2-1 in head-to-head meetings against the second-seeded Boston Celtics.
Brown, for his part, had already weighed in. Windhorst recounted that the Celtics star used his own podcast to suggest the snub was personal, saying he was passed over because players, teams and the media do not like him. Stephen A. Smith, who has long argued Brown is underappreciated, could not resist. "I wonder where he heard that before," Smith said. "He damn near quoted me, for crying out loud. That's all I was saying — I didn't say I felt that way, I just said that's what was being said."
The sharper disagreement was over the Third Team, which Smith dismissed out of hand. "That third team stinks," he said, arguing the 65-game rule had hollowed out the field by ruling out a string of stars. Anthony Edwards, LeBron James and Steph Curry were all ineligible, and Karl-Anthony Towns — to the irritation of Knicks fans — missed the cut despite playing the requisite games.
Windhorst conceded the point about depth while defending the individual selections. "They're not the top 15 players, but none of these guys egregiously is on this team," he said, noting that the voting margins were not close — Chet Holmgren, for one, finished well ahead of anyone else for his spot.
If there was a unifying thread, it was the games-played rule the league adopted to push stars to suit up more often. It kept three future Hall of Famers off the ballot entirely and forced voters into judgment calls at the margins — exactly the kind of debate the All-NBA reveal is built to spark. With the Finals about to begin, the arguments over who belonged will have to share the stage with the players still chasing a ring.
