ANKARA
Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert was on Tuesday named as the 2023-24 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, for a record-tying fourth time, the basketball association said.
The 31-year-old native of France joins Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace as the only four-time winners of the award, which has been presented annually since the 1982-83 season.
Gobert is also the first player to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award with the Timberwolves.
He averaged 14 points, a team-best 12.9 rebounds and a team-high 2.13 blocks per contest.
Gobert won the voting with 433 total points, while San Antonio Spurs Victor Wembanyama and Miami Heat’s Ban Adebayo followed him with 245 and 91 points, respectively.
Wembanyama named NBA Rookie of the Year
San Antonio Spurs forward-center Victor Wembanyama, on the other hand, was named as the 2023-24 NBA Rookie of the Year.
Wembanyama, who became the third Spurs player to claim the honor after David Robinson (1989-90) and Tim Duncan (1997-98), is also the first player from France to win the award.
He played with an average of 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game.
The Frenchman won the voting with 495 total points, while Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren followed him with 295 and Brandon Miller of the Charlotte Hornets came third with 86.
The winners are selected by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the US and Canada.
