After Rudy Gobert clinched the 2024 DPOY award, many felt Spurs superstar rookie Victor Wembanyama should have nabbed the prestigious award. The ROTY led the league with 3.7 blocks per game and showcased tremendous ability to guard both the perimeter and the driving lanes. In that wake, Kevin Garnett joined the chorus of people believing that Wembanyama was snibbed for the award.
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On his KG Certified podcast, the 2008 DPOY claimed that Wemby didn’t get the award because he was just a rookie. Since the Spurs Center “proved that he can do the job” from the jump, KG felt it was bogus to deny him the DPOY award. The 2008 champion alluded to various athletes changing their shot trajectory just because Wemby was on their heels, and how the intimidation factor alone makes him the perfect choice for the award.
“He earned that, no disrespect to any other person in the league, this is my opinion. I thought he did enough and he showed up enough consistently to win that award, regardless of your fu**ing status, where you at and what year you are in, if you gettin’ it and you’re a rookie, you’re gettin’ it,” Kevin Garnett told Paul Pierce
An enraged Garnett wished that the Spurs’ franchise player end up with “5 blocks a game” during the 2024-25 season and even mulled naming the DPOY award as the “Wemby Award”. Then he alluded to how the Center is a mix of Hakeem Olajuwon and Kyrie Irving, which sums up his two-way ceiling.
Kevin Garnett isn’t the only former NBA athlete who was annoyed at Wemby not winning the DPOY award, Gilbert Arenas has also voiced a similar opinion.
Is the Defensive Player of the Year award criteria skewed?
Since Rudy Gobert’s claim to the DPOY honor was largely fuelled by him having the best defensive rating in the league, Gilbert Arenas questioned if that was the justification for handing him the award. On his pod Gil’s Arena, the 3x All-Star argued that when Gobert is off the floor, the Timberwolves remain a top-notch defensive team, meanwhile when Wembanyama was off the floor, the Spurs’ defense was in tatters.
“How can you say he is this impactful defensively and you remove him and they are still great because there are still other players that do their job too. If you want to say, he instilled this type of defense into him to make them play better defense, okay. But as a better player individually, the numbers don’t lie, the impact doesn’t lie,” Gilbert Arenas told Gil’s Arena crew
Arenas then posited that if Gobert was anchoring the Spurs defense then he wouldn’t have the same impact as Wembanyama. He argued that since DPOY is an individual honor, the team’s defensive roster makeup should also be taken into account. Thus, the DPOY award has once again divided opinion and there is a growing discomfort around Gobert winning it four times.
The central argument revolves around the Timberwolves Center having enough defensive help compared to the other award finalists. Considering the outrage from many fans and athletes alike, this may be the last time we see the Frenchman winning this honor.
