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       Controversial DPOY announcement makes one thing clear about NBA
       landscape
        
 (HTM) Source
        
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       The NBA announced the winner of the 2023-24 Defensive Player of the
       Year award with little anticipation. The conversation surrounding this
       honor has been loud for months and the readings on the tea leaves were
       clear on the direction the wind was blowing. Rudy Gobert was lined up
       to win the award for the fourth time. Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace
       are the only other players to win this honor so many times.
        
       Gobert had a great defensive season yet again. He is a phenomenal
       defender but it feels wrong to insinuate that he is one of the 10 best
       defenders of all time. When you grace someone with this prestigious
       honor on this many occasions, you have to argue their place on an all-
       time list. His own contemporaries named Gobert as overrated in an
       anonymous poll, while selecting Victor Wembanyama as the league's best
       on defense. These votes do not reflect that.
        
       When you look at this list, it makes you scratch your head at many of
       the decisions. Domantas Sabonis received a third-place vote. That
       voter needs to step to the front of the stage and explain to the world
       what the thought process was behind that decision. Chet Holmgren
       deserves a vote before Sabonis and Chet doesn't deserve a vote.
        
       When you have items like that on your ballot, it calls the quality of
       the entire list into question. There is no need to go into all the
       reasons why Wembanyama should have been the first player in NBA
       history to win Defensive Player of the Year; that's been done ad-
       nauseam since this result was expected;. But politics and senseless
       castings need to be called out regardless.
        
       Spurs fans should rejoice anyway, though. At the very least, the NBA
       has given a man bent on proving why he's looked at as the one, another
       reason to crush the league next season. Great job on that.
        
        
        
        
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