Giannis Antetokounmpo Gets First Defensive Player of the Year Award

As they always say, "Defense wins championships"

While it isn't the case for Giannis Antetokounmpo yet, defense does win something else: a Defensive Player of the Year award.

Wednesday marks the end of a reign of a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and, the beginning of a new one as the National Basketball Association (NBA) officially named Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks as the winner of the 2019-2020 Kia Defensive Player of the Year award (DPOY)- beating out fellow finalists Rudy Gobert and Anthony Davis. Consequently, Antetokounmpo became the fifth player in NBA history to win both Defensive Player of the Year and the Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards in his career, joining Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and Kevin Garnett. The Greek Freak also became the second Milwaukee player to be named DPOY with Sidney Moncrief winning it with the Bucks during the 1982-1983 and 1983-1984 seasons which were the first seasons when the league started naming DPOY.

Antetokounmpo received 75 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and ended up with 432 points. It beat out Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers who only garnered 14 first-place votes and 200 points, and Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz who finished with six first-place votes and 187 points. 

The numbers that Antetounmpo put up during the 2019-2020 regular season until March 11 are evidence that he deserved that award as Antetounmpo led Milwaukee to become the team with the best defensive rating by only allowing 106 points per 100 possessions. With the Greek Freak on the floor, the Bucks limited opponents to 96 points per 100 possessions which is the lowest defensive rating among 300 players in the league who averaged 15 minutes per game at least.

In that same span of time, Antetokounmpo averaged 11 defensive rebounds per game with nine games him grabbing 15 defensive rebounds or more. He is also a finalist for this year's MVP race alongside James Harden and LeBron James. Could Antetokounmpo become the third player in NBA history (next to Jordan and Olajuwon) to win both the DPOY and MVP awards in the same season? It's a huge possibility. 

Photo is from Madison.com