NBA All-Defensive Team

The NBA All-Defensive Team is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) honor given since the 1968–69 NBA season to the best defensive players during the regular season. Until the 2013-2014 NBA season, voting was conducted by the NBA head coaches; the coaches are not allowed to vote for players on their own team. In 2014, a panel of 123 media members voted for the two All-Defensive Teams. ^[1][2] The All-Defensive Team is generally composed of two five-man lineups, a first and a second team, comprising a total of 10 roster spots. The players each receive two points for each first team vote and one point for each second team vote. The top five players with the highest point total make the first team, with the next five making the second team. In the case of a tie at the fifth position of either team, the roster is expanded. If the first team consists of six players due to a tie, the second team will still consist of five players with the potential for more expansion in the event of additional ties. Ties have occurred several times, most recently in 2013 when Tyson Chandler and Joakim Noah tied in votes received.

Tim Duncan holds the record for the most total selections with 14.^[3] Kevin Garnett, and Kobe Bryant follow with twelve total honors each, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has eleven total selections. Michael Jordan, Gary Payton, Garnett, and Bryant share the record for most NBA All-Defensive first team selections with nine. Scottie Pippen, Bobby Jones, and Duncan made the first team eight times each. Walt Frazier and Dennis Rodman made the All-Defensive first team seven times.^[3]

On four occasions, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award winner was not voted to the All-Defensive first team in the same year. Alvin Robertson in 1986, Dikembe Mutombo (1995), Tyson Chandler (2012), Marc Gasol (2013) were instead named to the second team. Whereas the All-Defensive Team is voted on by coaches, the Defensive Player of the Year is voted on by the media.^[4]

Ten players born outside the jurisdiction of the United States, plus two players born in U.S. insular areas (territories), have made either the first or second All-Defensive Team—Manute Bol, born in a part of Sudan that is now the independent nation of South Sudan; Hakeem Olajuwon of Nigeria; Patrick Ewing of Jamaica; Mutombo of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Andrei Kirilenko, born in the portion of the former Soviet Union that is now Russia; Anderson Varejão of Brazil; Thabo Sefolosha of Switzerland; Duncan and Raja Bell of the U.S. Virgin Islands; Luol Deng, a naturalized citizen of the United Kingdom born in what is now South Sudan; Serge Ibaka, born in the Republic of the Congo and naturalized in Spain; and Marc Gasol, born and primarily raised in Spain. Ewing, Olajuwon, and Kirilenko are naturalized U.S. citizens, and Duncan and Bell are U.S. citizens by birth, but they are still considered international players by the NBA because they were not born in one of the fifty states or Washington, D.C.^[5]

Selections

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, formerly known as Lew Alcindor, has been on 11 All-Defensive teams.

Walt Frazier is the only player to have been on all of the first seven All-Defensive first teams.

Patrick Ewing is the only Jamaican-born player to have been on an All-Defensive team.

Dennis Rodman has been on the All-Defensive first team seven times.

Scottie Pippen has made the All-Defensive first team eight consecutive times, from 1991–92 to 1998–99.

Gary Payton has the record for the most NBA All-Defensive first team selections consecutively, with nine, from 1993–94 to 2001–02.

Dikembe Mutombo, who has won four NBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards, has been selected into the All-Defensive first and second team three times each.

Tim Duncan is the only person with fourteen selections.

Kobe Bryant has made six of the seven most recent All-Defensive first team selections.

Ben Wallace, who has won four NBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards in five years, has been selected into the All-Defensive first team five times in six selections.

Most selections

Certificate presented to Bobby Jones for All-Defensive honors in 1981–82.

See also

• National Basketball Association portal

Notes

References

General

Specific