The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo has been named the 2019-20 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, the NBA announced.
Antetokounmpo won the award in a landslide, receiving 75 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and earning 432 points total.
Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis came in second with 14 first-place votes (200 points), and Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert finished third with six first-place votes (187 points).
The 2018-19 NBA MVP, Antetokounmpo becomes the fifth player to win both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in his career, joining Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Kevin Garnett.
Congratulations!!! Motherland Africa is proud of your achievements. We still await the next one MVP😉
— ogheneovo (@ovoemma) August 26, 2020
Antetokounmpo also joins Sidney Moncrief as the only players to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award with the Bucks. Moncrief played for Milwaukee when he earned the honour in both the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons, the first two seasons the award was presented.
The 25-year-old anchored the best defensive team in the league in the Bucks, averaging 13.6 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal in 30.4 minutes per game.
Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote. The voting was conducted based on regular-season games played through March 11.
