Every NBA Defensive Player of the Year, 1983-2025
The NBA Defensive Player of the Year award was first given for the 1982-83 season. Sidney Moncrief of the Milwaukee Bucks was the first winner. The award has been given every year since, including the 1998-99 and 2011-12 lockout-shortened seasons. As of April 2026, three players are tied for the most career DPOYs at four: Dikembe Mutombo, Ben Wallace, and Rudy Gobert.
This page tracks every winner, the structural shift the award has undergone (from center-dominated in the 1980s and 1990s to wing-defender-focused in the 2010s, then back to center-focused with Gobert), and the players whose careers came too early (Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Nate Thurmond) to be eligible for an award that did not yet exist.
The complete list
| Season | Winner | Team | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982-83 | Sidney Moncrief | Milwaukee Bucks | SG | First DPOY ever named |
| 1983-84 | Sidney Moncrief | Milwaukee Bucks | SG | Repeat |
| 1984-85 | Mark Eaton | Utah Jazz | C | 5.6 blocks per game |
| 1985-86 | Alvin Robertson | San Antonio Spurs | SG | Only player ever to lead the league in steals four times |
| 1986-87 | Michael Cooper | Los Angeles Lakers | SF | Showtime-era perimeter stopper |
| 1987-88 | Michael Jordan | Chicago Bulls | SG | Only player to win MVP and DPOY in the same season as a guard |
| 1988-89 | Mark Eaton | Utah Jazz | C | Second DPOY |
| 1989-90 | Dennis Rodman | Detroit Pistons | PF | Bad Boys era |
| 1990-91 | Dennis Rodman | Detroit Pistons | PF | Repeat |
| 1991-92 | David Robinson | San Antonio Spurs | C | The Admiral |
| 1992-93 | Hakeem Olajuwon | Houston Rockets | C | First of two |
| 1993-94 | Hakeem Olajuwon | Houston Rockets | C | MVP + DPOY + Finals MVP same season |
| 1994-95 | Dikembe Mutombo | Denver Nuggets | C | First of four |
| 1995-96 | Gary Payton | Seattle SuperSonics | PG | ”The Glove” |
| 1996-97 | Dikembe Mutombo | Atlanta Hawks | C | Second DPOY |
| 1997-98 | Dikembe Mutombo | Atlanta Hawks | C | Third DPOY |
| 1998-99 | Alonzo Mourning | Miami Heat | C | Lockout-shortened season |
| 1999-2000 | Alonzo Mourning | Miami Heat | C | Repeat |
| 2000-01 | Dikembe Mutombo | Atlanta Hawks / Philadelphia 76ers | C | Fourth DPOY (then a record) |
| 2001-02 | Ben Wallace | Detroit Pistons | C | First of four |
| 2002-03 | Ben Wallace | Detroit Pistons | C | Second |
| 2003-04 | Ron Artest | Indiana Pacers | SF | The 2004 Pistons championship year |
| 2004-05 | Ben Wallace | Detroit Pistons | C | Third |
| 2005-06 | Ben Wallace | Detroit Pistons | C | Fourth (tied with Mutombo) |
| 2006-07 | Marcus Camby | Denver Nuggets | C | Career-best blocks per game |
| 2007-08 | Kevin Garnett | Boston Celtics | PF | Championship season |
| 2008-09 | Dwight Howard | Orlando Magic | C | First of three |
| 2009-10 | Dwight Howard | Orlando Magic | C | Second |
| 2010-11 | Dwight Howard | Orlando Magic | C | Third; Mutombo, Wallace, and Gobert each won four |
| 2011-12 | Tyson Chandler | New York Knicks | C | Lockout-shortened season |
| 2012-13 | Marc Gasol | Memphis Grizzlies | C | First Spanish-born winner |
| 2013-14 | Joakim Noah | Chicago Bulls | C | Bulls’ last DPOY of the Thibodeau era |
| 2014-15 | Kawhi Leonard | San Antonio Spurs | SF | First of two |
| 2015-16 | Kawhi Leonard | San Antonio Spurs | SF | Repeat |
| 2016-17 | Draymond Green | Golden State Warriors | PF | First non-center since Gary Payton (1996) |
| 2017-18 | Rudy Gobert | Utah Jazz | C | First of four |
| 2018-19 | Rudy Gobert | Utah Jazz | C | Second |
| 2019-20 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | Milwaukee Bucks | PF/C | MVP + DPOY same season (third player ever after Hakeem and Jordan) |
| 2020-21 | Rudy Gobert | Utah Jazz | C | Third |
| 2021-22 | Marcus Smart | Boston Celtics | PG | First guard to win since Gary Payton in 1996 |
| 2022-23 | Jaren Jackson Jr. | Memphis Grizzlies | PF | Second-youngest winner ever |
| 2023-24 | Rudy Gobert | Minnesota Timberwolves | C | Fourth (tied with Mutombo and Wallace for most ever) |
| 2024-25 | Evan Mobley | Cleveland Cavaliers | C | First Cavs winner |
(The 2025-26 winner will be announced in May 2026. Victor Wembanyama is the consensus favorite per the published April 2026 awards-ladder polls at NBA.com and The Athletic, ahead of Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis.)
Most DPOYs of all time
| Wins | Player |
|---|---|
| 4 | Dikembe Mutombo (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001) |
| 4 | Ben Wallace (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006) |
| 4 | Rudy Gobert (2018, 2019, 2021, 2024) |
| 3 | Dwight Howard (2009, 2010, 2011, all consecutive) |
| 2 | Sidney Moncrief, Mark Eaton, Hakeem Olajuwon, Alonzo Mourning, Dennis Rodman, Kawhi Leonard |
The Russell-Wilt-Thurmond counterfactual
Bill Russell played from 1956 through 1969. He averaged 22.5 rebounds per game across his career, won 11 championships, and is, by most basketball-historical conventions, the greatest defensive player in NBA history. He did not win a single Defensive Player of the Year award because the award did not exist. The earliest possible DPOY for Russell would have been 1956-57 (his rookie year). The award was created 27 years too late for him.
Wilt Chamberlain is the only player ever to lead the NBA in blocks (an unofficial stat in his era; the league did not begin officially tracking blocks until 1973-74). He averaged 8.8 blocks per game in 1971-72 by some retrospective counts. He retired in 1973. The DPOY award did not exist for him either.
Nate Thurmond, who played from 1963 through 1977, finished his career with 14,464 rebounds (sixth all-time) and what would have been multiple top-three DPOY finishes had the award existed. He retired six years before the first DPOY was given.
By plausible retroactive projection, the Russell-Wilt-Thurmond era would have produced roughly 18 to 22 DPOYs spread across those three players had the award existed from 1956. Mutombo, Wallace, and Gobert’s tied record of four would be unremarkable in that counterfactual.
The structural shift: center to wing and back
The DPOY’s first 33 years (1983-2015) were dominated by centers. Of the 33 winners through Marc Gasol in 2013, 24 were centers, 4 were power forwards, and only 5 were guards or wings. The historical pattern fits the era: defensive value, in the pre-three-point-revolution NBA, was concentrated at the rim.
Kawhi Leonard’s back-to-back 2015 and 2016 wins were the first sign of a shift. Draymond Green’s 2017 win (the first non-center to win since Gary Payton in 1996) marked the structural break. The next nine years produced a more position-balanced run: Gobert (C), Giannis (PF/C), Gobert (C), Marcus Smart (PG), Jaren Jackson Jr. (PF), Gobert (C), Evan Mobley (C). The 2017-2024 stretch is the only era in the award’s history with a guard winner (Smart in 2022).
The reason the award has reverted to centers since Smart’s 2022 win is the analytics community’s increased weight on rim protection. Modern defensive metrics (D-EPM, D-RAPM, D-LEBRON) all emphasize at-the-rim shot suppression as the most valuable defensive activity. Centers control that part of the floor. The DPOY voting body, which has grown more analytics-literate over the past five years, has converged with the metrics.
MVP + DPOY in the same season
Three players have won MVP and DPOY in the same season: Michael Jordan in 1987-88, Hakeem Olajuwon in 1993-94, and Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2019-20. The full breakdown is on our MVP and DPOY same season page.
The award’s voting structure
The DPOY is voted on by a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters across the United States and Canada. Each voter selects a first, second, and third place. First-place votes are worth 5 points, second-place 3 points, third-place 1 point. The player with the highest point total wins. The award has been ironically (or maybe not so ironically) decided by single-digit margins in three of the last seven seasons (2018, 2022, 2023), reflecting how subjective defensive evaluation has become with the analytics-versus-tape divide among voters.
Gear
Browse The Book of Basketball for the defensive frameworks behind these seasons, and grab a card blaster.
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Sources
- NBA.com history of the Defensive Player of the Year award.
- Basketball-Reference: NBA Defensive Player of the Year award winners.
- Sports Illustrated, Lee Jenkins, “The case for Sidney Moncrief” (March 2017).
- The Athletic, Marcus Thompson II, “Draymond Green: Heart of the Warriors” (February 2017).
- ESPN, Adrian Wojnarowski, coverage of Rudy Gobert’s fourth DPOY (May 2024).
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Sources
- NBA.com history of the Defensive Player of the Year award
- Basketball-Reference: NBA Defensive Player of the Year award winners
- Sports Illustrated: Lee Jenkins, "The case for Sidney Moncrief" (March 2017)
- The Athletic: Marcus Thompson II, "Draymond Green: Heart of the Warriors" (February 2017, on the 2017 DPOY case)
- ESPN: Adrian Wojnarowski coverage of Rudy Gobert's fourth DPOY in May 2024