Wembanyama unanimous DPOY
- Spurs center Victor Wembanyama was unanimously named the 2025–26 Defensive Player of the Year. (si.com) - He beat fellow finalists Ausar Thompson and Chet Holmgren for the honor. (si.com) - Reports note he became the first unanimous winner of the award this season. (si.com)
Victor Wembanyama was named the National Basketball Association’s 2025-26 Defensive Player of the Year on Monday after a unanimous vote. (nba.com) The San Antonio Spurs center received all 100 first-place votes, according to the league announcement. Oklahoma City Thunder big man Chet Holmgren finished second, and Detroit Pistons wing Ausar Thompson finished third. (nba.com, usatoday.com) The award is voted on by a global media panel and goes to the league’s top regular-season defender. Wembanyama won it in his third National Basketball Association season at age 22. (nba.com, nbcsports.com) That made Wembanyama the youngest Defensive Player of the Year winner in league history. The league also said he is the first player ever to win the award unanimously. (nba.com, nbcnewyork.com) Wembanyama’s case rested on both volume and deterrence. He averaged 3.0 blocks per game this season, a figure that led the league, while opponents routinely changed shots or avoided the paint when he was near the rim. (statmuse.com, cbssports.com) He paired that defense with star-level offense, averaging 25.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists in the regular season. By April 19, he had already opened the playoffs with 35 points in San Antonio’s Game 1 win over Portland. (espn.com, nba.com) The timing matters for San Antonio because the Spurs are no longer talking only about potential. They reached the 2026 playoffs, and Wembanyama is now collecting the kind of league hardware that usually marks a franchise anchor rather than a long-term project. (nba.com, nba.com) He also joined a short list of players with both Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year on their résumé. Reports published after the vote said only Michael Jordan and David Robinson had previously done that. (thesource.com, nba.com) A unanimous award does not settle every argument about the season, but it does settle this one: by April 20, the league’s voters saw Wembanyama as the standard for defense. (nba.com, sports.yahoo.com)
