Starting with the 2023–24 season, players must appear in at least 65 games (out of the normal 82-game schedule) to be eligible for most major regular-season playing awards and honors, including the All-Defensive Team.
Protections also exist for players who suffer season-ending injuries, who are eligible with 62 credited games, and those affected by what the CBA calls "bad faith circumstances".
Michael Jordan, Gary Payton, Garnett and Bryant share the record for most NBA All-Defensive first team selections with nine.
[6] Victor Wembanyama was the first rookie to make the All-Defensive first team, doing it as a member of the San Antonio Spurs during the 2023-24 season.
Player of the Year winners Alvin Robertson (1986), Dikembe Mutombo (1995), Tyson Chandler (2012) and Marc Gasol (2013) were instead named to the second team.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, formerly known as Lew Alcindor, has been on 11 All-Defensive teams.
Walt Frazier is the only player to have been on all of the first seven All-Defensive first teams.
Patrick Ewing is the only Jamaican-born player to have been on an All-Defensive team.
Dennis Rodman has been on the All-Defensive first team seven times.
Scottie Pippen made the All-Defensive first team eight consecutive times, from 1991–92 to 1998–99.
Gary Payton has the record for the most NBA All-Defensive first team selections consecutively, with nine, from
1993–94
to
2001–02
.
Dikembe Mutombo, who has won four NBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards, has been selected into the All-Defensive first and second team three times each.
Tim Duncan is the all-time record holder for most All-Defensive team selections (15).
Kobe Bryant has made a total of 12 All-Defensive teams, more than any other guard.
Ben Wallace, who has won four NBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards in five years, has been selected into the All-Defensive first team five times in six selections.
Rudy Gobert, who has won four NBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards, has been selected into the All-Defensive first team seven times.
Certificate presented to
Bobby Jones
for All-Defensive honors in 1981–82.
