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Kawhi Leonard is truly future of the San Antonio Spurs franchise. After being named last year’s NBA Finals Most Valuable Player(MVP), Leonard was awarded the 2014-15 regular seasons’ Defensive Player of the Year(DPOY).
The voting was done among a crowd of 130 sportswriters and broadcasters across the United States and Canada. Each player received 5 points for a first-place votes, three points for a second-place vote and finally one point for a third-place vote.
Surprisingly, Kawhi Leonard won the award without winning the most number of first place votes. Totaling 333 points, he won the award by a small margin of just 16 points with Golden State Warriors’ power forward Draymond Green finishing with 317 points.
Here’s the breakdown of the voting, courtesy of Sports Illustrated NBA:
At 23, he is tied with Dwight Howard and Alvin Robertson for the youngest player to win NBA DPOY. He is also the first perimeter defender to win the award since Ron Artest in 2004. He is the first Spurs’ player after David Robertson(1991-92) to win the award.
The Los Angeles-born player averaged 16.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and also became the sixth forward to lead the league in steals per game since the NBA, first began to track this particular statistic in 1973.
With this win, Leonard also joins the esteemed list of being only the third player after Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan to have won both the NBA MVP of the year as well as the DPOY.
The Spurs are currently tied 1-1 in a best of seven series with the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round. Leonard is averaging 20.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2.5 steals.
Guess the Lakers players!
