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Ben Wallace Named Defensive Player of Year

Posted on: Monday, 2 May 2005, 15:00 CDT

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Pistons center Ben Wallace won the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year award for the third time in four years Monday.

Wallace, who was presented with the award at an afternoon news conference, joins Dikembe Mutombo as the only two players to win the award three or more times.

Wallace also won it in 2002 and 2003. Mutombo won in 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001.

During the regular season, he ranked fifth with 2.38 blocks per game, second with 12.2 rebounds a game and 23rd with 1.43 steals a game. The 6-foot-9, 240-pound Wallace ranks second in the playoffs with three blocks a game.

The defending champion Pistons will try to clinch their first-round series against Philadelphia when they host Game 5 against the 76ers on Tuesday.

Philadelphia coach Jim O'Brien has marveled at Wallace's ability to pressure players rebounding the ball, then harass the point guard as he dribbles up the court.

Wallace drew a charge near the Sixers' basket on such a sequence in Philadelphia against 6-foot, 165-pound Allen Iverson, one of the NBA's quickest players.

Wallace received 45 first-place votes and a total of 339 points from a panel of 125 members of the media. San Antonio's Bruce Bowen was second with 247 points and Denver's Marcus Camby finished third with 168.

Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers won the award last year.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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