Despite putting up better numbers across the board this season, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum went from making the All-NBA Third Team last year to missing out on the three All-NBA Teams entirely this year.
As a result, he also missed out on a $33 million bonus that would have kicked in automatically had he made an All-NBA Team this season. Utah's Donovan Mitchell missed out on the same kind of bonus.
Appearing on Kicks' Beyond The Press podcast, Tatum reacted to the snub as well as the missed bonus.
"I know I should’ve made it," Tatum said. "Just, I guess, with the season I had. I mean, $33 million is a lot. Obviously that would make anybody feel some type of way. I wasn’t necessarily upset about losing the money. I just felt like the way I was playing, everything I did, I thought it should’ve been a no-brainer. I think I was more frustrated with that."
Tatum said he would like to see some sort of change in the voting process, and specifically pointed to some sort of minimum qualification in terms of games played or other criteria.
"I think what they do need to change is, it’s kind of opinion-based," Tatum said. "A bunch of media members get to vote. What’s the criteria? Is there a certain amount of games you need to play? Should you be in playoff contention? Is there a certain amount of points you should average depending on your position? I think there should be something like that in place, because I think if you just allow people to just vote and there’s nothing set in place like, ‘You gotta play this many games,’ or whatever it may be, I think that would help it out a lot. But I know nobody’s necessarily gonna feel bad for me and Donovan because we still get paid a lot of money. But I think it’s more that I just felt like I deserved to make it, not necessarily money."
Several players made this year's All-NBA Teams despite playing 75% or less of their team's games, including Kawhi Leonard (52 of 72), LeBron James (45), Jimmy Butler (52), Paul George (54) and Kyrie Irving (54). Tatum played 64 of 72 games (89%).
Tatum finished 20 voting points behind George for the final forward spot on the Third Team. He actually had more voting points than Irving (69 to 61), but missed out since the teams follow a strict two-guards, two-forwards, one-center setup.
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