He called it. Two years ago, as a 20-year-old rookie watching Rudy Gobert win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award for the fourth time, Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs had a message for his fellow Frenchman.
“Let him win it now,” Wembanyama said at the time, “because after that, it’s no longer his turn.”
On Tuesday, the turn arrived.
Wembanyama was named the 2026 NBA Defensive Player of the Year—becoming, at 22, the youngest winner in the award’s history and the first ever to win unanimously. All 100 first-place votes went to him. Oklahoma City Thunder’s Chet Holmgren finished second with 76 second-place votes. Detroit Pistons guard Ausar Thompson was third.
The closest anyone had previously come to a unanimous DPOY was Ben Wallace in 2001–02, when he collected 116 of 120 first-place votes. Wembanyama left no votes for anyone else.
“I’m super, super happy to win this award and actually super proud to be the first-ever unanimous,” he said.
Wembanyama Dominated on Defense
The numbers behind the award are hard to argue with. Wembanyama led the NBA in blocks for the second consecutive season with 197, added 66 steals, ranked fourth in rebounding at 11.5 per game, and was a central pillar of a San Antonio defense that finished with the league’s second-best defensive rating. In his playoff debut on Monday against the Portland Trail Blazers, Portland players went scoreless on 11 attempts when Wembanyama was the contesting defender.
“He deters people from even shooting the ball,” said teammate De’Aaron Fox. “They’ll see him in there and dribble the ball out or kick out. He changes the whole dynamic of your defense—and he changes the dynamic of other team’s offense.”
Wembanyama was quick to share the credit. “I’m sitting here, I happen to be the guy who’s put in the spotlight, but I am part of a system,” he said. “I couldn’t do what I do if it wasn’t for my teammates and my coaching staff.”
Teammate Keldon Johnson, himself a Sixth Man of the Year finalist, had no doubt what this moment represents. “Everything he’s achieved so far has been earned and never given,” Johnson said. “This is just a small token of what’s to come for Victor.”
Wembanyama is also a finalist for NBA MVP alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic. San Antonio’s first DPOY winner since Kawhi Leonard won back-to-back in 2015 and 2016 has bigger hardware in his sights.
He told you so.
