"It kind of stings" - LeBron James regrets not clinching only NBA accolade that blotches his career

Future Hall of Famer LeBron James has seemingly done it all throughout his 21 years in the NBA. With year 22 incoming, James will look to extend his own all-time scoring record after being the first player to eclipse 40,000 points, while also moving further up the all-time assists ladder. Despite his long list of accolades an accomplishments on top of his four rings, there's one award that's eluded him.

It's something that has continued to be a major sticking point in the "GOAT" debate among fans. While Michael Jordan won a Defensive Player of the Year award in 1988, and was named to nine NBA All-Defensive First Teams, James has never won the award.

In addition, he's also only been named to an NBA All-Defensive First Team five times during his career, despite playing for longer than Jordan. During a recent appearance on The Shop, produced by his Uninterrupted brand, James spoke about missing out on winning a Defensive Player of the Year award.

As he explained, despite all the other achievements throughout his career, missing out on the Defensive Player of the Year award doesn't make much sense to him.

"Defensive player of the year. ... Yeah. I mean, that's the only award that I don't have in my house that kind of stings. I talked about this before. Like, it don't make sense." ...

"So the year I finished second in Defensive Player of the Year award, the guy who won Defensive Player of the Year didn't even make First Team All-Defense."

Looking at the two years LeBron James finished second for Defensive Player of the Year voting

As LeBron James indicated, during the 2013 season he finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting behind Marc Gasol. The voting was surprising given that, as James explained on The Shop, Gasol wasn't named to the NBA All-Defense First Team.

At the time, James was playing for the Miami Heat, who went on to win back-to-back titles. That season, LeBron James was averaging 1.7 steals per game, along with .9 blocks per game, while Gasol was averaging 1.0spg and 1.7bpg.

While many thought James deserved to win the award given his impressive defense, the deciding factor largely came down to team defensive ratings. Marc Gasol and the Grizzlies finished second in the league with a defensive rating of 101.22 while the Heat finished ninth.

Although James was a strong second-place finisher, Gasol received nearly double the amount of first-place votes, indicating his win may not be entirely controversial.

What many fans may not remember, however, is that LeBron James finished second in DPOY voting during the 2008-09 season. In this case, despite a 24-year-old James having an impressive season that saw him average 1.7spg and 1.1bpg, Dwight Howard was a strong favorite to win the award.

At the time, Howard was dominating the league and secured 105.0 first-place points compared to James finishing in second with 4.0. Of course, in that case, James' case for a DPOY award was far less compelling than the 2012-13 season.