Defensive Player of the Year vote: All the rankings of NBA legends
Tim Duncan never won Defensive Player of the Year, despite receiving votes in more seasons than any other NBA player.
In winning the DPOY award, Victor Wembanyama becomes the fourth San Antonio Spur to do so, joining Alvin Robertson , David Robinson and Kawhi Leonard . Strangely enough, Tim Duncan , whom we rank as the third-best defensive player ever , never won one, despite the fact that he received votes for the award in more seasons than any other player in NBA history. And if you were around in the 2000s, the eye test alone would have told you he was the league's top rim protector.
As we've always argued, DPOY and All-Defensive Team voting back in the day was among the worst in league history, with some players racking up support simply by piling up steals and/or blocks, which was not a particularly sophisticated way of going about it. (This was before the analytics era, of course). Anyway, below we've ranked all the players who received DPOY votes in multiple seasons.
1. Tim Duncan: 15 seasons receiving votes 3rd: 2001, 2007 4th: 2003, 2005 5th: 1998, 1999 6th: 2006, 2013 7th: 2004 8th: 2015 9th: 2008 11th: 2009 13th: 2014 14th: 2010 17th: 2011 2. Kevin Garnett: 14 seasons 1st: 2008 2nd: 2001, 2002, 2011 3rd: 2003 5th: 2012 6th: 2004 7th: 1999, 2000 8th: 2009 9th: 2005 11th: 1998 13th: 2006, 2007 3.
Rudy Gobert: 10 seasons 1st: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2024 2nd: 2017 3rd: 2020, 2022 5th: 2015 7th: 2016 13th: 2025 4. Hakeem Olajuwon: 10 seasons 1st: 1993, 1994 2nd: 1989, 1990 3rd: 1988, 1995 5th: 1991, 1996 6th: 1992 7th: 1999 5. Dennis Rodman: 10 seasons 1st: 1990, 1991 2nd: 1992 3rd: 1989 4th: 1993 5th: 1995, 1998 6th: 1994 7th: 1996 8th: 1988 6.
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