Bucks’ Giannis 5th to win MVP, DPOY in career

NBA

Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was named the 2019-20 NBA Defensive Player of the Year on Tuesday.

Antetokounmpo won the award in a landslide, receiving 75 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and earning 432 points total.

The 2018-19 MVP, Antetokounmpo becomes just the fifth player to win both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in a career, joining Kevin Garnett, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan and David Robinson.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis came in second with 14 first-place votes (200 points) and Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who won the award in each of the last two seasons, finished third with six first-place votes (187 points).

Antetokounmpo, 25, anchored the best defensive team in the league in the Bucks, averaging 13.6 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal in 30.4 minutes per game.

According to Second Spectrum, the Bucks superstar held opponents to 36.3% shooting during the regular season when he was the closest defender. That is the lowest field goal percentage allowed by any player in a season since Second Spectrum started tracking the stat in 2013-14 (minimum 525 field goal attempts).

Antetokounmpo is also the presumptive favorite to win MVP again this year. Only Olajuwon (1993-94) and Jordan (1987-88) have won both the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season.

Defensive Player of the Year has only been awarded since the 1982-83 season.

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