<Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The NBA's Defensive Player of the Year Award is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given since the 1982--83 NBA season to the best defensive player of the regular season . The winner is selected by a panel of 124 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada, each of whom casts a vote for first, second and third place selections . Each first - place vote is worth five points, second - place voted are worth three points, and a third - place vote is worth one . The player with the highest point total, regardless of the number of first - place votes, wins the award . </P> <P> Since its inception, the award has been given to 21 different players . Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace have each won the award a record four times . Dwight Howard is the only player to ever win the award in three consecutive seasons . Sidney Moncrief, Mark Eaton, Dennis Rodman, Hakeem Olajuwon, Alonzo Mourning, and Kawhi Leonard have each won it twice . The most recent award recipient is Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors . </P> <P> Although five of the first six winners were perimeter players, the award has traditionally been given to big men who rebound and block shots . Only seven perimeter players have been honored: Moncrief, Alvin Robertson, Michael Cooper, Michael Jordan, Gary Payton, Ron Artest (known now as Metta World Peace), and Kawhi Leonard . Payton is the only point guard to have won . Jordan, Olajuwon, David Robinson, and Kevin Garnett are the only Defensive Player of the Year winners to have won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) during their careers; Jordan and Olajuwon won both awards in the same season . In Olajuwon's case, he is the only one to have also won the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award and the NBA championship in the same season . On four occasions, the Defensive Player of the Year recipient was not voted to the NBA All - Defensive First Team in the same year . Robertson in 1986, Mutombo (1995), Tyson Chandler (2012), and Marc Gasol (2013) were instead named to the second team . Whereas the Defensive Player of the Year is voted on by the media, the All - Defensive teams were voted on by NBA coaches prior to 2014 . </P>

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