San Antonio Spurs centre Victor Wembanyama has unsurprisingly won the award for Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the youngest to do so at 22 - he didn't win last year because an injury kept him away for too long and didn't play the minimum matches to be eligible for awards. The "French alien" whose incredible height, the tallest in the league at 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m), has helped him be the player with more blocks for three consecutive seasons, has achieved 627 blocks in his career (three seasons with San Antonio Spurs), and is also nominated for MVP alongside Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The other two finalists Chet Holmgren from Oklahoma City Thunder and Ausar Thompson from Detroit Pistons did not stand a chance... literally, as for the first time in NBA, the Defensive Player of the Year was picked unanimously, with the 100% of votes.
No other Defensive Player had been chosen with 100% of votes, and none have been younger than Wembanyama, who has also won the award for Rookie of the Year: only Michael Jordan and David Robinson have won both awards.
In other categories, it is very rare that a player receives 100% of the votes, with Stephen Curry being MVP in 2016 with 100% of the votes being one of the rarest examples. The only other case of that happening in the last ten years was... also Wembanyama, when he won Rookie of the Year in 2024.
