2024 All-NBA Teams: Jayson Tatum edges Jalen Brunson for First Team, LeBron James gets 20th selection in a row

The NBA announced its All-NBA teams on Wednesday night after overhauling the selection system this season. In the past, teams included two guards, two forwards and one center. The problem the league has encountered lately is that it has put centers at an unfair disadvantage, with the MVP runner-up of the past three seasons (Joel Embiid twice and Nikola Jokic once) falling to the Second Team. In addition, player availability became a hotly-debated topic, as there was no agreed-upon standard for judging absences. Should voters pick the best possible player, or the slightly worse candidate who appeared in 10 extra games?

The system has been streamlined this season. Positions are out, meaning the top five players regardless of position earned First-Team honors, and so on. There is also the league’s new 65-game minimum that has been instituted for most awards. Any player hoping to make an All-NBA Team must have played in at least 65 games this season. 

With that out of the way, here are the three All-NBA Teams.

2024 All-NBA First Team

2024 All-NBA Second Team

2024 All-NBA Third Team

Notably, LeBron James has now become the first player in NBA history to be selected to 20 All-NBA Teams. He has made the cut 20 seasons in a row after missing out during his rookie 2003-04 season. He has long since held the record for most selections, however, as no other player in NBA history has been chosen to an All-NBA team more than 15 times (which Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all have). The closest active player is Kevin Durant, who just earned selection No. 11.

Three players earned their first ever All-NBA selection this season: Edwards, Haliburton and Brunson. Edwards and Haliburton both signed contract extensions last offseason that pushed their starting salaries from 25% of the cap to 30% of the cap provided they earned Rose Rule supermax eligibility. All-NBA is the easiest path to doing so, and both of them did.

Even though the All-NBA teams were technically position-less this season, it’s worth pointing out how closely this year’s vote stuck to traditional positional guidelines. Both of the first two teams included two guards, two forwards and a center. The Third Team included three guards, one forward and one center. That is just a coincidence, but it’s still a somewhat appropriate one considering how much pushback the plan to remove positions from the ballot received.

A total of 10 other players received votes for All-NBA. They are, in order of how many points they received: Jaylen Brown (50), Paul George (16), Tyrese Maxey (16), Rudy Gobert (12), Victor Wembanyama (11), Zion Williamson (11), Paolo Banchero (10), De’Aaron Fox (9), Bam Adebayo (7) and DeMar DeRozan (1).