NBA Purposely Snubbing Philadelphia 76ers Players?

Despite gutsy performances this season by Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, and even T.J.McConnell, the NBA seems to turn a blind eye upon the Philadelphia 76ers when handing out awards

I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but it seems like the league really hates awarding Philadelphia 76ers players in the past two seasons. Last year Nerlens Noel who was an elite defender as a rookie was snubbed from the Rookie of The Year honors. Andrew Wiggins was an inefficient scorer and nowhere near Noel’s level of defense yet he took home the award. Per 36 minutes Noel had Wiggins beat in almost every statistical category except scoring. Last year there was no excuse and this year there is no excuse.

While there has not been a Rookie of The Year crowned this year, there has been a couple of shady Rookie of The Month awards given. The NBA gives out two Rookie of The Month awards a month for the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. In the Eastern Conference there has only been three true competitors for the award in the past two months. Jahlil Okafor, Kristaps Porzingis, and Myles Turner.

Let’s play a game of “Who Should’ve Won?”. Look at the three January stat lines below and ask yourself who should have won.

Player A – 11.2 points per game, 4.7 rebounds per game, 0.6 rebounds per game, 1.6 blocks per game, 0.2 steals per game, 59.2% True Shooting, 19.2 minutes per game

Player B – 15.3 points per game, 7.2 rebounds per game, 1.4 assists per game, 1.6 blocks per game, 1 steals per game, 53.7% True Shooting, 29.5 minutes per game

Player C – 17.2 points per game, 5.3 rebounds per game, 1 assists per game, 0.8 blocks per game, 0.8 steals per game, 60.2% True Shooting, 27.6 minutes per game

Player A is out of the competition for January. Player A had significantly less minutes and counting stats compared to the other. So between player B and C, who do you think should have won January’s Rookie of The Month? You would think Player C right? He has almost the same amount of counting stats and did it playing less minutes per game. He also scored much more efficiently. Yet Player B won the award and his name is Kristaps Porzingis. Player C was Jahlil Okafor.

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Let’s do the same thing for the month of February. This month is where things get much more shady. Since all three players played in the same range of minutes per game in February (27.8 to 29.8), The stat lines I will be showing below will be per 36 minutes to make it even more fair.

Player A Per 36 Minutes – 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.38 assists, 2.63 blocks, 0.75 steals, 51.8% True Shooting

Player B Per 36 Minutes – 24 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.94 assists, 1.68 blocks, 0.51 steals, 59.7% True Shooting

Player C Per 36 Minutes – 16.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, 0.72 assists, 2.17 blocks, 0.48 steals, 52.6% True Shooting

This one isn’t even a contest. Player B put up almost the exact same stats in February per 36 minutes that Dirk Nowitzki put up in his MVP season. The other two players don’t come anywhere close as far as efficiency or counting stats. Player B had Rookie of The Month in the bag. But guess what? He didn’t win it. Player A didn’t even win it and even he had better stats than Player C. Player C won and his name is Myles Turner. Player A is Porzingis and Player B is Okafor. If things like this don’t prove that the league has bias against 76ers players then I don’t know what will.

Next: Philadelphia 76ers: There are Two “O’s” in Okafor

It’s not that the Philadelphia 76ers need to walk away with every award fathomable, but the awards for individual effort should be based on just that, INDIVIDUAL effort, and not the size of the market of the team nor on the record of that organization.