They are currently the fiercest of competitors, facing off in the 2026 Western Conference finals. But for one celebratory moment on Friday, the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Chet Holmgren were named members of the same team.
Wembanyama and Holmgren headline the 2025-26 NBA All-Defensive First Team, which was announced Friday night, one hour before Game 3 between the Spurs and Thunder in San Antonio.
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Ausar Thompson of the Detroit Pistons, Rudy Gobert of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Derrick White of the Boston Celtics rounded out the All-Defensive First Team.
Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors, Cason Wallace of the Thunder, Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat, OG Anunoby of the New York Knicks and Dyson Daniels of the Atlanta Hawks were named to the All-Defensive Second Team.
Wembanyama was named to the first team on all 100 ballots cast — not a surprise given that he was the unanimous choice for 2025-26 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. A towering 7-foot-4 center, Wembanyama anchored a Spurs defense that posted the league’s third-best defensive rating during the regular season. He also led all players in blocks. His 3.1 blocks per game led the league, while Holmgren finished second, with 1.9 blocks per game.
This is the second time in Wembanyama’s three-year NBA career that he’s been named to the All-Defensive First Team. In 2024, he became the first rookie in league history to receive the honor. Last season, he was ineligible because a blood clot limited him to 46 games.
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Holmgren was named to the first team on 93 of the ballots cast — also not a surprise given that he was the runner-up to Wembanyama for Defensive Player of the Year. A 7-foot-1 forward/center, Holmgren led the Thunder to the league’s best defensive rating.
This is the first time Holmgren has made an NBA All-Defensive team.
A global media panel of 100 voters selected the 2025-26 Kia NBA All-Defensive Team.
The complete voting results ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/nzi2CGhq3T
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 22, 2026
Biggest takeaways
Once again, voters appeared to place a heavy emphasis on teams’ final regular-season defensive ratings. Four of the top-five teams in defensive rating — the No. 1 Thunder, No. 2 Pistons, No. 3 Spurs and No. 4 Celtics — placed one player apiece on the first team. Gobert’s Timberwolves finished eighth in defensive rating.
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Also notable: There was a nearly even distribution between interior players and perimeter players. There are four bigs on the two teams: Wembanyama, Holmgren, Gobert and Adebayo. There are six perimeter defenders: Thompson, White, Barnes, Wallace, Anunoby and Daniels. (If you consider Anunoby a big, which is not entirely unreasonable given his versatility, then there’s a 50-50 distribution.)
Biggest surprise
White deserves his first-team honor, but Barnes also deserves it. In fact, it’s arguably a surprise that White beat out Barnes for the final spot on the first team. In the 2025-26 Defensive Player of the Year voting, Barnes finished fifth overall, while White placed sixth. Yet, in the All-Defensive voting, Barnes and White flip-flopped, with White receiving 58 first-team votes and 30 second-team votes for 146 total points and Barnes receiving 42 first-team votes and 46 second-team votes for 130 total points.
Biggest snub
Daniels has a well-earned reputation as a top-flight defender; he was an All-Defensive First Team selection last season.
Perhaps guards Amen Thompson of the Houston Rockets and Stephon Castle of the Spurs had stronger claims than Daniels to All-Defensive Team honors this season. Daniels finished with nine first-team votes and 32 second-team votes for 50 total points. Thompson and Castle each garnered five first-team votes and 36 second-team votes for 46 points apiece.