The NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award has been rather hotly contested over the last few years. Marcus Smart won it for his work spearheading the Boston Celtics’ defense during the 2021-22 campaign, while Rudy Gobert picked up the award for the third time during the 2020-21 season as the anchor of the Utah Jazz’s vaunted defense.
Each year, Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo came in fourth place — he and Gobert are the only players to register top-5 finishes for both of those seasons. Adebayo has not been shy about his belief that he’s the best player in the league on that end of the floor and that he deserves to have a Defensive Player of the Year award in his trophy case, but so far, that has eluded the 25 year old.
Adebayo appeared at a youth clinic the Heat held this week, and after being asked about his career goals, he stressed that he hasn’t forgotten those two snubs while stressing he has his eyes on the award in 2022-23.
“I should have won it the last two years and I will win it this year,” Adebayo said, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Adebayo is perhaps the most unique defensive player in the NBA, as he is one of the few players who can legitimately guard anyone on the floor and do a good job against them. He’s the lynchpin of Miami’s defense, and last year, he made clear that he found it disrespectful that he wasn’t a finalist for the award.