NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award

National Basketball Association awards and honors

Championship

• O'Brien Trophy

• Brown Trophy (defunct)

Individual awards

• All-Star Game MVP

• Most Improved Player

• Bill Russell Finals MVP

• Most Valuable Player

• Coach of the Year

• Rookie of the Year

• Defensive Player of the Year

• Sixth Man of the Year

• Executive of the Year

• Sportsmanship Award

• J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award

Honors

• All-NBA Team

• All-Defensive Team

• All-Rookie Team

Michael Jordan is one of the four players to have won both an MVP and a Defensive Player of the Year award in their career.

David Robinson won the award in the 1991–92 NBA season.

Dwight Howard won the award in the 2008–09 and 2009–10 NBA seasons.

The National Basketball Association's Defensive Player of the Year Award is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given since the 1982–83 NBA season, to the top defensive player of the regular season. The winner is selected by a panel of 124 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada, each of whom casts a vote for first, second and third place selections. Each first-place vote is worth five points; each second-place vote is worth three points; and each third-place vote is worth one point. The player with the highest point total, regardless of the number of first-place votes, wins the award.^[1]^[2]

Since its inception, the award has been given to 16 different players. Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace each won the award four times,^[3] while Sidney Moncrief, Mark Eaton, Dennis Rodman, Hakeem Olajuwon, Alonzo Mourning, and Dwight Howard have each won it twice. The most recent award recipient is Dwight Howard, who is also the youngest player to win.^[4]^[5] Michael Jordan,^[6] David Robinson,^[7] Hakeem Olajuwon,^[8] and Kevin Garnett^[2]^[9] are the only Defensive Player of the Year winners to have won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) during their careers; Jordan and Olajuwon won both awards in the same season.^[6]^[8] In Olajuwon's case, he is the only one to have also won the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award and the NBA championship in the same season.^[8]

Winners

^	Denotes player who is still active
*	Elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame
Player (X)	Denotes the number of times the player has received the award

Season	Player	Position	Nationality	Team
1982–83	Moncrief, SidneySidney Moncrief	Guard	United States	Milwaukee Bucks
1983–84	Moncrief, SidneySidney Moncrief (2)	Guard	United States	Milwaukee Bucks
1984–85	Eaton, MarkMark Eaton	Center	United States	Utah Jazz
1985–86	Robertson, AlvinAlvin Robertson	Guard	United States	San Antonio Spurs
1986–87	Cooper, MichaelMichael Cooper^[b]	Guard/Forward	United States	Los Angeles Lakers
1987–88	Jordan, MichaelMichael Jordan*^[a]^[b]	Guard	United States	Chicago Bulls
1988–89	Eaton, MarkMark Eaton (2)	Center	United States	Utah Jazz
1989–90	Rodman, DennisDennis Rodman^[b]	Forward	United States	Detroit Pistons
1990–91	Rodman, DennisDennis Rodman (2)^[b]	Forward	United States	Detroit Pistons
1991–92	Robinson, DavidDavid Robinson*^[a]^[b]	Center	United States	San Antonio Spurs
1992–93	Olajuwon, HakeemHakeem Olajuwon*^[a]^[b]	Center	Nigeria^[c]	Houston Rockets
1993–94	Olajuwon, HakeemHakeem Olajuwon* (2)^[a]^[b]	Center	United States^[c]	Houston Rockets
1994–95	Mutombo, DikembeDikembe Mutombo	Center	Zaire^[d]	Denver Nuggets
1995–96	Payton, GaryGary Payton^[b]	Guard	United States	Seattle SuperSonics
1996–97	Mutombo, DikembeDikembe Mutombo (2)	Center	Zaire^[d]	Atlanta Hawks
1997–98	Mutombo, DikembeDikembe Mutombo (3)	Center	Democratic Republic of the Congo^[d]	Atlanta Hawks
1998–99	Mourning, AlonzoAlonzo Mourning^[b]	Center	United States	Miami Heat
1999–00	Mourning, AlonzoAlonzo Mourning (2)^[b]	Center	United States	Miami Heat
2000–01	Mutombo, DikembeDikembe Mutombo (4)	Center	Democratic Republic of the Congo^[d]	Philadelphia 76ers
2001–02	Wallace, BenBen Wallace^^[b]	Center/Forward	United States	Detroit Pistons
2002–03	Wallace, BenBen Wallace^ (2)^[b]	Center/Forward	United States	Detroit Pistons
2003–04	Artest, RonRon Artest^	Forward/Guard	United States	Indiana Pacers
2004–05	Wallace, BenBen Wallace^ (3)^[b]	Center/Forward	United States	Detroit Pistons
2005–06	Wallace, BenBen Wallace^ (4)^[b]	Center/Forward	United States	Detroit Pistons
2006–07	Camby, MarcusMarcus Camby^	Center	United States	Denver Nuggets
2007–08	Garnett, KevinKevin Garnett^^[a]^[b]	Forward	United States	Boston Celtics
2008–09	Howard, DwightDwight Howard^	Center	United States	Orlando Magic
2009–10	Howard, DwightDwight Howard^ (2)	Center	United States	Orlando Magic

Notes

^a Has won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award
^b Has won the NBA championship
^c Hakeem Olajuwon was born in Nigeria, but became a naturalized United States citizen in 1993.^[10]
^d Zaire was renamed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May 1997.^[11]

References

General

"Defensive Player of the Year". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. http://www.nba.com/history/awards_defensiveplayer.html. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
"Defensive Player of the Year Award Winners". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/dpoy.html. Retrieved July 10, 2008.

Specific

↑ "Nuggets’ Camby Wins NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. May 1, 2007. http://www.nba.com/news/camby_defensiveplayer_070427.html. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 "Kevin Garnett Wins Defensive Player of the Year Award". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. April 25, 2008. http://www.nba.com/news/garnett_defensive_080422.html. Retrieved July 10, 2008.
↑ "Ben Wallace Wins Fourth Defensive Player of the Year Award". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. May 8, 2006. http://www.nba.com/news/bwallace_060508.html. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
↑ "Howard becomes youngest to win Defensive Player of the Year". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. http://www.nba.com/2009/news/04/21/defensive.player.of.year.ap/index.html. Retrieved April 21, 2009.
↑ "Howard wins Kia Defensive Player of Year honors again". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. April 20, 2010. http://www.nba.com/2010/news/04/20/player.of.year.ap/index.html. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 "Michael Jordan Bio". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. http://www.nba.com/history/players/jordan_bio.html. Retrieved July 10, 2008.
↑ "David Robinson Bio". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. http://www.nba.com/history/players/robinson_bio.html. Retrieved July 10, 2008.
↑ ^8.0 ^8.1 ^8.2 "Hakeem Olajuwon Bio". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. http://www.nba.com/history/players/olajuwon_bio.html. Retrieved July 10, 2008.
↑ "Kevin Garnett Bio". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/kevin_garnett/bio.html. Retrieved July 10, 2008.
↑ "Hakeem Olajuwon Bio: 1992-93". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/hakeem_olajuwon/bio.html. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
↑ "Democratic Republic of the Congo". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cg.html. Retrieved November 8, 2009.

NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award