A single voter’s adherence to outdated positional rules cost the San Antonio superstar a historic sweep, fueling debate over the league’s new positionless criteria and modern greatness.
Victor Wembanyama’s 2025-26 regular season resulted in his first career All-NBA nod, as he made the First Team. With that being said, one ballot kept the San Antonio Spurs' superstar from becoming a unanimous selection, despite a year that firmly established him as one of basketball’s five best players.
The explanation behind the lone dissent has only intensified debate.
SiriusXM’s Justin Termine, the voter who left Wembanyama off his First Team ballot, said he still votes with positions in mind and believed Nikola Jokić deserved the center spot. Termine argued that honoring multiple centers on the First Team feels unfair to past eras when players were restricted by position.
"In my opinion, it is unfair historically to those that came before us, who I have great respect for, that those guys at center were not allowed to be on the First Team at the same time," Termine said. "It's unfair to those guys that they had to be Second Team, Third Team, or, in (Patrick) Ewing's case, not even on the ballot, just because rules were different... To me, it's unfair that guys today get to make it because the rules have changed."
At this moment, it is hardly the Spurs' focus; they just lost Game 5 at OKC and now are down 3-2 in the Western Conference Finals, needing to win back-to-back outings now in order to advance to the NBA Finals against the East champion Knicks.
But as we take a breath from all of that ...
All-NBA voting is now positionless. The league intentionally moved away from forcing voters to separate guards, forwards and centers so the five best players earn First Team honors—regardless of role.
Wembanyama was clearly one of those five players.
The 22-year-old earned his first All-NBA nod and finished just one vote shy of unanimity. Only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokić received every First Team vote. Wembanyama landed at 99 out of 100.
What makes the snub harder to justify is the larger picture of Wembanyama’s season.
He already became the NBA’s first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year and was also a unanimous selection for All-Defensive First Team. He led the league in blocks again while transforming San Antonio into a legitimate contender.
That’s what unanimous All-NBA players look like.
You can respect Jokić’s season and still acknowledge Wembanyama belonged on every First Team ballot. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive under the current voting system.
And what makes it even bigger of snub is that Wemby was the first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year in NBA history, so adding another unanimous award just felt right.
One voter chose tradition over modern criteria.
The result? Wembanyama missed out on another historic accomplishment by a single vote.
Officially, he’s First Team All-NBA.
Realistically, he should have been unanimous.
