Projo Sports Blog

The NBA announced today that the Celtics' Kevin Garnett has been named Defensive Player of the Year.

Garnett helped the Celtics to league-best records of 66-16 (.805) overall and 31-10 (.738) on the road. Boston held opponents to just 90.3 points (second in the NBA) after allowing 99.2 points per game a season ago. Garnett led the Celtics to the biggest one-year turnaround in NBA history as the team won 42 more games this season than in 2006-07 (24-58), surpassing the previous record of 36 games, set by the San Antonio Spurs in the 1997-98 season.

The 12-year NBA veteran became the 32nd player in league history to record 20,000 career points on March 8 against Memphis. Garnett is only the fourth active player to reach this milestone, joining Phoenix’s Shaquille O’Neal (26,296), Denver’s Allen Iverson (22,988) and Kobe Bryant (21,619) of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Garnett received 493 points, including 90 first-place votes, from a panel of 124 sports writers and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Denver’s Marcus Camby, who won the award last season, finished second with 178 points and Houston’s Shane Battier finished third with 175 points.

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