NBA All-Defensive Team

• 1. Introduction

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  Tim Duncan was named to the NBA All-Defensive Team 15 times, more than any other player since the honor began in the 1968-69 season. Garnett and Bryant trail him by three. Every year the league singles out its best defenders, and every year someone has to decide who earns the spot. Who casts those votes, and how are they counted? What happens when two players cannot be separated? Why did the league change its eligibility rules for the 2023-24 season? The answers show how this quiet honor is built and who has mastered it.

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• 2. Counting the Votes

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  A panel of 123 writers and broadcasters now decides who makes the team. Every first-team vote earns a player two points. Every second-team vote earns one point. The five players with the highest totals form the first team, and the next five form the second team, which gives ten honorees in all.

  A tie at the fifth position of either team expands the roster. If two players are level for the last first-team spot, the first team holds six. The second team still keeps its five, though further ties could enlarge it as well.

  Before the 2013-14 season, the NBA head coaches did the voting. They were barred from choosing players on their own team. In 2013, Tyson Chandler and Joakim Noah finished with identical vote totals, the most recent tie the league has seen.

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• 3. Coaches Versus Media

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  In 1986, Alvin Robertson won the Defensive Player of the Year award and still landed on the second team. His case was not unique. While coaches filled out the All-Defensive ballots, the Defensive Player of the Year award was decided by the media. Two separate electorates sometimes disagreed.

  On four occasions, the league's top defender by that award was left off the first team in the same year. Dikembe Mutombo was one of them in 1995. Tyson Chandler followed in 2012, and Marc Gasol in 2013. Like Robertson, each was placed on the second team instead.

  Gasol's omission in 2013 came just before the coaches handed the ballot to a panel of writers and broadcasters.

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• 4. The 65-Game Rule

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  Starting with the 2023-24 season, a player needs 65 appearances out of the normal 82-game schedule to be eligible. A game only counts when the player is credited with at least 20 minutes. There is some give in the rule. Two near misses, in which a player logged between 15 and 19 minutes, can still be included in the 65.

  Injuries get their own protection. A player who suffers a season-ending injury needs only 62 credited games. Players affected by what the CBA calls "bad faith circumstances" are also shielded.

  The same season brought a second change. The All-Defensive Teams were no longer bound by position, so voters could fill the lineups however they saw fit. Those rules took effect in a season that would produce a first-team selection unlike any before it.

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• 5. The Record Holders

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  Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant each earned 12 selections, which places them just behind the leader. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has 11. Total selections tell only part of the story, because first-team honors carry more weight.

  Four players share the record of nine first-team selections: Michael Jordan, Gary Payton, Garnett and Bryant. One step below sit four players with eight each. They are Rudy Gobert, Scottie Pippen, Bobby Jones and Tim Duncan.

  Seven first-team selections belong to Walt Frazier, Dennis Rodman and Chris Paul. Frazier is the oldest name in that group, and Paul the most recent.

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• 6. A Rookie on the First Team

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  Victor Wembanyama made the first team in 2023-24, and no rookie had ever done that before. He earned the honor as a member of the San Antonio Spurs in his opening season in the league.

  The feat is notable because the team is chosen by voters weighing a full season of defensive play. A newcomer had to outpoll veterans with years of reputation behind them.

  He did it for the San Antonio Spurs, the same franchise that Tim Duncan represented across his record run.

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