Victor Wembanyama has done something no player in NBA history has managed. The San Antonio Spurs center won the 2026 Defensive Player of the Year award unanimously, making him both the youngest winner ever and the first to claim the honor without a single dissenting vote.
Wembanyama is 22 years old. The award has existed since 1983, and in more than four decades no player collected every available vote until now. That includes past winners Dikembe Mutombo, Ben Wallace, and Rudy Gobert, who won the award four times.
The Spurs finished this season as a No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, earning home court in the first round against Portland. San Antonio won Game 1 of that series 111-98 and hosts Game 2 on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on NBC.
