National Basketball Association Awards
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The National Basketball Association's Defensive Player of the Year Award is an annual National Basketball Association 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.
Since its inception, the award has been given to 16 different players. Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace have each won the award four times. Dwight Howard has won it thrice, the only player to ever win the award in three consecutive seasons. Sidney Moncrief, Mark Eaton, Dennis Rodman, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Alonzo Mourning have each won it twice. The most recent award recipient is Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls. On four occasions, the Defensive Player of the Year recipient was not voted to the NBA All-Defensive first team in the same year. Alvin Robertson in 1986, Mutombo, Tyson Chandler, and Gasol were instead named to the second team. Whereas the Defensive Player of the Year is voted on by the media, the All-Defensive teams are voted on by NBA coaches.
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Check all the winners of NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award presented under National Basketball Association Awards since 1983 .
