The All-NBA teams were announced yesterday and Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons was named to the first team, with his teammate Jalen Duren named to the 3rd team.
Joining Cade on the first team was 2-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic. One of these things is not like the other, as Cunningham was the only American-born player named to the first team.
Cunningham finished 7th in the MVP voting last season and jumped up to 5th this season, and he might be the USA's best chance to end a run that has been going on for nearly a decade.
Cade Cunningham has a chance to be the next American-born MVP
The last eight MVP awards have gone to players who were born outside of the US, whith SGA taking the last two, and Joker, Embiid and Giannis accounting for the previous six before him.
You have to go all the way back to 2018 to find an American-born MVP in James Harden, and it could be just as long before we see another one.
The top four in MVP votes this year went to players from outside the US and that may not change anytime soon. Luka Doncic still hasn't won one, and it feels like he will at some point, though Luka may end up going down as the greatest player to never win the top individual award.
And it's hard to see a path for him to get there, as Victor Wembanyama may stake his claim to forseeable MVP future if he can stay healthy. If we're being real, Wemby probably should have won this season, as no player in the NBA has a bigger effect on the game on both ends.
If he stays healthy, Wembanyama is going to win his share of MVPs and Cunningham will still have other foreign-born players to contend with even if he doesn't.
With Jayson Tatum dealing with nagging injuries, and Jaylen Brown not quite at the level of the guys ahead of him in the MVP voting, it's difficult to see where the next American-born MVP is going to come from if it's not Cade Cunningham.
To get there, Cunningham would likely have to lead his team back to the top of the Eastern Conference and put up numbers that were impossible to ignore. That's possible, as we saw a glimpse of what Cunningham can be when he's knocking down 3-point shots at a high rate, as he did in the playoffs.
Otherwise, we may be waiting for Cooper Flagg or some kid who is currently in grade school to snatch the MVP award away from the international players and back to the birthplace of the sport.
It shows how far the NBA has come in the last few decades, as it is truly an international sport now with many of the best players coming from outside the USA.
Add us as a preferred source on Google