Jason OwensStaff writerMon, April 20, 2026 at 10:35 PM UTC·4 min readVictor Wembanyama was a virtual lock to win Defensive Player of the Year in 2024-25 before a blood clot cut his season short at 46 games.
There were no shortcomings this season. The NBA announced on Monday that Wembanyama won the 2025-26 Defensive Player of the Year award, the first of his three-year NBA career.
He was the first unanimous winner of the award in NBA history, receiving all 100 first-place votes. Wembanyama beat out fellow finalists Chet Holmgren and Ausar Thompson to secure the hardware.
The win marks Wembanyama’s second top-two finish in voting for DPOY. He finished second to Rudy Gobert during his 2023-24 Rookie of the Year campaign.
“I’m super proud to be the first ever unanimous [winner],” Wembanyama told NBC Sports after winning the award. … “My shot-blocking is something I’ve been working on forever. It’s probably the area of my game where I feel most comfortable at.”
Holmgren finished second in voting ahead of Thompson.
Victor Wembanyama is the first unanimous Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year since the award’s inception in 1982-83.The winner was selected by a global media panel of 100 voters.Complete voting results ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/wIUDEDWJtm
If projections hold true, the DPOY award will be the first of many for the transcendent San Antonio Spurs center, who has no equal as a defender in basketball. Thanks in part to his defensive prowess, Wembanyama is also an MVP finalist alongside Nikola Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Wembanyma’s game is unprecedented on multiple fronts. At 7-foot-4 with handles, a face-up game and a 3-point shot in addition to post moves, Wembanyama is next to impossible to guard. But it’s arguably his defense that sets him apart above all else.
Opposing players with the ball have to account for Wembanyama and his 8-foot wingspan, whether attacking the rim, pulling up from the mid-range or even on the perimeter.
Wembanyama led the league in blocks per game (3.1) for the third time in his three NBA seasons. He altered countless others as the league’s premier rim protector. He averaged over a block per game more than the league’s second-place finisher, fellow DPOY finalist Holmgren (1.9 blocks per game).
Wembanyama’s blocks alone placed him as the league leader in stocks (blocks + steals) per game, a combined metric frequently cited to measure a player’s defensive impact. But he added one steal per game to his tally as a defender who can impact the game in multiple ways.
Wembanyama’s defense translated to success for the Spurs. As a team, the Spurs ranked third in the league in defensive rating, largely due to Wembanyama’s impact. And the Spurs are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2019 as a championship contender.
Wembanyama won DPOY while anchoring a Spurs team that secured the NBA’s second-best record (62-20) and the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. He made his playoff debut on Sunday, leading a 111-98 Spurs win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Wembanyama’s game tally almost cost him DPOY for a second straight season. But he just reached the 65-game minimum threshold required by the NBA to be eligible for postseason awards.
That’s a tally that includes San Antonio’s loss to the New York Knicks in the NBA Cup final that doesn’t count in the standings but does count toward the 65-game minimum.
Several awards and All-NBA contenders, including Jokić, Luka Dončić, Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards, either flirted with or fell short of the 65-game minimum, raising debate about whether the standard is fair. In the end, Wembanyama didn’t have to worry about it after reaching the threshold in San Antonio’s penultimate game of the regular season.