Siakam putting the finishing touches on All-NBA resume

TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – Over the coming days, a select panel of media members will sit down individually and fill out their ballots for the NBA’s various end-of-season awards.

They have until Monday – the day after the regular season wraps – to submit their picks, and given how close the race is for most of this year’s hardware, they’ll have their work cut out for them. The vote for All-NBA seems especially challenging. With so much star talent in the league, how do you narrow your selection down to 15 players across three teams?

They’ll consider a bunch of different things. They’ll look at the numbers, both standard and advanced. Many will factor in a player’s impact and contribution to team success. The most dedicated voters might even watch film on the players they’re less familiar with.

Whether they care to admit it or not, narrative can also sway a vote in either direction, too. It’s only natural. That’s just human nature, and these are sportswriters and broadcasters casting the votes, after all. We’re suckers for a compelling story.

So, what’s Pascal Siakam’s story?

It’s an all-timer, and one that most people are well versed in by now. He didn’t start playing organized basketball until he was 17, and had to overcome personal and professional adversity along his unlikely journey from Cameroon to the pros. In just a few years, he went from the 27th-overall pick to the league’s Most Improved Player and an NBA champion, and then to a maximum salary player and first-time all-star.

You can bet that was on the voters’ minds when they selected him to the All-NBA second team in 2019-20. It was hard to imagine Siakam’s story getting any better than that. But if there’s one thing people love more than