Marcus Smart Becomes First Guard to Win the DPOY Award Since 1996-97

Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics in 2018
Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics in 2018. Photo by Rob Sambles/Frozen in Motion/REX/Shutterstock (9306395x)

The NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award isn’t just reserved for bigs, after all. On Monday, the league announced that Boston Celtics’ guard Marcus Smart is the recipient of the DPOY honors for this season.

Smart has become the first guard since 1996-97 and Hall of Famer Gary Payton to receive this award. To make things even better, it was actually Payton who presented Smart with the DPOY trophy.

Smart was the heart and soul of the Celtics’ defense that finished the season ranked first in defensive rating and points allowed. The 28-year-old player did everything on the defensive side of the ball, getting 1.6 steals, 3.2 defensive rebounds, and 1.1 recovered lost balls per game. He also totaled 106 deflections and 16 charges drawn in 2021-22.

Smart received 37 first-place votes from the panel of 100 DPOY award voters. He finished with a total of 257 points, edging out Phoenix Suns’ Mikail Bridges (202) and Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert (136). Bridges had 22 first-place votes while Gobert had 12.

The list of players who also received first-place votes includes Bam Adebayo (Miami Heat), Jaren Jackson Jr. (Memphis Grizzlies), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks), and Robert Williams III (Celtics).