San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama was announced as the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year on Monday, becoming the first player to be selected unanimously by voters.
At just 22 years of age, he becomes the 3rd youngest player to capture the award as he beat out Thunder forward Chet Holmgren and Piston’s wing Ausar Thompson. Wembanyama led the league in blocks for a 3rd straight season, averaging 3.1 per game. Ironically, that mark was the lowest of his career to date after averaging 3.8 in 2024-25 and 3.6 in 2023-24.
“I’ve had the chance to have great coaches over my career who have taught me great habits on defence,” Wembanyama told reporters. “The real struggle might have been getting to 65 games…But I’m super, super happy to win this award and actually super proud to be the first-ever unanimous.”
“We often overlook the team aspect,” Wembanyama continued “I’m sitting here. I happen to be the guy who’s put in the spotlight, but I am part of a system and I couldn’t get this award and I couldn’t do what I do if it wasn’t for my teammates … and my coaching staff.”
San Antonio is now the first franchise to ever have 4 different players win the award since its inception in 1982-83. Wemby joins Alvin Robertson (1986), David Robinson (1992) and Kawhi Leonard (2015 & 2016) on the list of Spurs players to earn the distinction.
Prior to Monday, only Michael Jordan and David Robinson had won both the rookie of the year award and defensive player of the year throughout their careers. But Wembanyama is now the only player to earn both awards unanimously in the history of the league.
“I feel like he is one of the hardest workers that I’ve ever been around,” Spurs forward Keldon Johnson said. “He takes his craft very seriously. I feel like this is just a small token of what’s to come for Victor. He’s a special player now. He’s a special player on the court and even more special person off the court as well. This is just a small token, small flowers that’s given to him for Defensive Player of the Year.”
Rounding out the rest of the voting was Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert in fourth, followed by Toronto’s Scottie Barnes, Boston’s Derrick White, Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace, Houston’s Amen Thompson, Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels and New York’s OG Anunoby.
San Antonio will now turn their attention back to their series against the Portland Trail Blazers who they currently lead 1 game to 0. Game two of their first round matchup is slated to take place in San Antonio on Tuesday night at 8pm ET.
Photo: Daiei Onoguchi. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.