Ok, first of all, major HUGE congratulations to Raja Bell for making his first appearance on the All Defensive Team. This is very well deserved, and if you didn't think so before, I bet you think so now after watching him sacrifice his own offense game after game to keep Kobe in check. Big cheers to the voters for getting this one right. But...

That loud scream you're hearing right now? That's me all the way from Dallas, absolutely IRATE that Shawn Marion got left off AGAIN. He didn't even make the second team, just the list of players "also receiving votes". So tell me, HOW THE HECK DOES THE GUY WHO FINISHED FOURTH FOR DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR NOT END UP ON EITHER OF THE ALL-DEFENSE TEAMS!?!?!? What were the voters thinking!?! What am I missing!? ARGH!!!!

Well, I hope Shawn himself realizes how completely insane this is, and takes it upon himself to defensively DESTROY whoever he's guarding for the rest of the series. And offensively too while he's at it.

That said, major congratulations to Raja. I don't want to take anything away from something that is genuinely appreciated and deserved. But there should be TWO Suns on the All-Defense team, not just one.

UPDATE: Some quotes from Raja, Shawn, and Mike D'Antoni, and Steve Nash: Seen on AZCentral:

"Of all the things I thought I could hear this morning when I came to practice, that I made first-team All Defense was not even on the list,'' Bell said after practice. "It's a great honor. I'm very grateful. That's pretty cool."

[...]

"A lot of guys say they're real analytical defensively, they like this game plan, that game plan. I'm just the opposite,'' Bell said. "I just go out there and try to play hard.''

Wow, awesome words from Raja! "It's all right,'' Marion said. "I'm just going to keep doing what I do." That's the spirit, Shawn! "Sometimes there's about 15 guys that you throw into a pot, and you have to pick 10 of them,'' D'Antoni said. "Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. There's so much involved. Coaches don't sit there and think for four hours who they want to pick. It's a spur-of-the-moment thing, and you have ideas based on how they played against you, so you're not looking at a full-proof system. I'm just really proud of Raja, and I hate it for Shawn.'' Yeah, me too coach! "He's got the ability. He's a good athlete. He works hard, but I think more than anything he's a great competitor,'' Steve Nash said. "Raja takes a lot of pride in it. Those are characteristics people overlook in everything. He shows up every day and goes to battle, that's why he is where he is." They don't call him the MVP for nothing!