It’s time to say goodbye to the Defensive Player of the Year award for the next 10 years. The era of Victor Wembanyama has arrived. The Spurs superstar has made history, becoming the youngest and first-ever unanimous winner.
“I’m super, super happy to win this award and actually super proud to be the first-ever unanimous,” Wembanyama said. “I’ve had the chance to have great coaches all over my career that have taught me great habits on defense.”
Wembanayam had an amazing defensive season for the Spurs. He led the league in blocks with 197 and also had 66 steals. All that contributed to the Spurs finishing with the second-best defensive rating(110.4). On top of that, he also finished fourth in rebounding(11.5) and second in defensive rebounding(9.5).
The funny thing is that Wembanyama called his shot. During his rookie season, he finished second behind Rudy Gobert. After that season, he said, “Let him win it now, because after that, it’s no longer his turn.”
Even after the end of this season, Wembanyama was asked if he would be surprised if he didn’t win Defensive Player of the Year unanimously, and he said, “Yes.”
Wembanyama earned all 100 of the first-place votes while Chet Holmgren and Ausar Thompson finished second and third, respectively. The last time something even remotely similar happened was in 2001-02 when Ben Wallace received 116 of the 120 first-place votes.
All of his teammates praised his talent and abilities.
“Vic’s a lot different than a typical defender,” rising star Stephon Castle said. “Most of the time when somebody wins Defensive Player of the Year, it’s like more team defense and obviously, you have to be a great defender as well. But I feel like for Vic, he could’ve won it on any team in the league.”
“He deters people from even shooting the ball,” former All-Star De’Aaron Fox said. “You talk about guys that change shots. He literally negates guys even shooting the ball. They’ll see him in there and dribble the ball out or kick out.”
“Everything that [he’s] achieved so far has been earned and never given,” said teammate Keldon Johnson, a finalist for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award. “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever been around.”
Now, Wembanyama is waiting for the final MVP polls in which he is also a finalist alongside Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. It’ll be interesting to see where he finishes there and also how he performs the rest of the playoffs.
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