San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama captured the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award Monday night, setting the 7-foot-4 phenom on a path he predicted for himself as a rookie.
Just before fellow Frenchman Rudy Gobert won DPOY for the fourth time at the end of Wembanyama’s rookie season in 2024, the then-20-year old said in French that Gobert’s days of winning the award were numbered.
“I know that Rudy has a very good chance of winning it this year, and it would be deserved,” Wembanyama said. “Let him win it now, because after that, it’s no longer his turn.”
Wembanyama becomes the youngest DPOY winner at 22 years old and the first to win the award unanimously. He’s also San Antonio’s first DPOY winner since former Spurs star Kawhi Leonard won in back-to-back seasons (2014-15 and 2015-16), a trend Wembanyama hopes to reignite, perhaps with even more consecutive victories.
Wembanyama earned all 100 first-place votes for the award. Oklahoma City‘s Chet Holmgren came in second place with 76 second-place votes. Detroit‘s Ausar Thompson came in third.
Before Wembanyama became the first unanimous winner of the award, Ben Wallace (2001-02) was the closest to accomplishing the feat when he received 116 of the 120 first-place votes with Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Dikembe Mutombo combining for the remaining votes.
