her X handle<\/a>, highlighting just how far back the belief goes.<\/p>\n\u201cTwo years ago I was debating voting for Wemby for DPOY and asked an accomplished veteran player for his opinion. I\u2019ll never forget what he said,\u201d Shelburne wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018This was the last year anyone else had a chance,\u2019 the player said. Once he wins DPOY, he will win every year. In the end they\u2019ll want to name it after him,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
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The statement now feels less like a bold prediction and more like an early acknowledgment of what was coming.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama\u2019s defensive presence has consistently separated him, turning games into mismatches simply through his impact.<\/p>\n
Victor Wembanyama\u2019s unanimous DPOY win proves dominance<\/p>\n
That prediction fully materialized in 2026, when Wembanyama was named the NBA\u2019s Defensive Player of the Year in unanimous fashion.<\/p>\n
He became the first player in league history to sweep every single first-place vote for the award, a reflection of how clear the gap had become between him and the rest of the field.<\/p>\n
Across the season, he anchored one of the league\u2019s top defenses while leading the NBA in blocks and consistently altering shots well beyond the stat sheet.<\/p>\n
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Opponents were forced to adjust entire offensive schemes around his presence, often avoiding the paint altogether when he was on the floor.<\/p>\n
At just the early stage of his career, that level of control on the defensive end has already started to redefine expectations for the position.<\/p>\n
If anything, the only question now is not whether he can win again, but how long he can keep doing it.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama\u2019s defensive dominance is no longer a projection, it is now a reality the entire league has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,15132,301461,590,301460,85,12838],"class_list":{"0":"post-622008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-dpoy","11":"tag-entire-league","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-ramona-shelburne","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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