Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert wins his 3rd Defensive Player Of The Year award joining only 3 others with 3 or more

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Utah Jazz center Rudy GobertNBA - Getty Images

It was 2018 when we saw the Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert get his first defensive player of the year award. Then the very next year in 2019 he got the award again setting up his back-to-back DPOY campaign.

In 2020 he would fall short and come in third place voting behind the eventual winner, Milwaukee Bucks star forward Giannis Antetokumpo & second-place Los Angeles Laker power forward Anthony Davis. Many argued that Gobert should have very well won it for a third straight year that year but coming off of a controversial year where Gobert contracted covid not long after making an idiotic joke during a press conference. It was pretty easy to see why he wasn't the popular choice when the votes started coming in.

Regardless, That was then and this year is now and Rudy is now the Defensive Player Of The Year for 3 out of the last 4 seasons.

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Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert emphatically blocks MVP Nikola JokicNBA - Getty Images

Rudy Gobert got 84 of 100 first-place votes and finished with 464 total points finishing in front of 2nd place Philadelphia 76ers point guard Ben Simmons who got 15 first-place votes & 287 total points and 3rd place runner up Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green who finished with zero votes but had 76 total points and Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo got the lone remaining vote that was left.

Gobert now puts himself in a very small group of players who have ever earned the award 3 times or more in their career now mentioned with the likes of NBA Legend and Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo who has 4, Detroit Pistons Legend Ben Wallace who also has 4, and Dwight Howard who has 3.

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Gobert Played in 71 of the 72 season games missing just one and finished the season averaging 14.3 points, 13.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and a career-high 2.7 blocks per game. He also finished with 0.6 steals and 1.7 turnovers averaged per game.

With Rudy Gobert getting his third award it might ignite a fire in him to keep doing what he is doing especially right now in his western conference round 2 matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers. As of this moment, the Utah Jazz is up 1-0 against LA.

Can Gobert and the Jazz keep the momentum going?

Only one way to find out and that's to watch

Hope you guys enjoyed the read

-Sani