Cleveland's Evan Mobley wins NBA Defensive Player of the Year award

Evan Mobley said his goal coming into the season with the Cleveland Cavaliers was to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.

He got it done.

The Cavs consider Mobley to be their best defensive player, and the league thought even more highly of him. Mobley held off fellow finalists Dyson Daniels of Atlanta and Draymond Green of Golden State for the award, the results being announced Thursday night in a broadcast on TNT.

“It just feels great to finally get this award,” Mobley said.

Saying “finally” might be a bit of a stretch. Mobley is only 23 — the fifth-youngest player to win the award, joining fellow 23-year-olds Dwight Howard, Jaren Jackson Jr., Alvin Robertson and Kawhi Leonard as winners of the Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy.

Mobley won the award in a season where he was an All-Star for the first time and set a career high for scoring.

“That was going hand-in-hand all year,” Mobley said. “I was trying to figure out how I could be more offensively productive and still maintain my defensive style and prowess. So, I feel like I did a good job this year and it clearly shows.”

But the case Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson made for Mobley was how different the Cavaliers' defensive numbers were with Mobley on the court and without. Put simply, with him on the court, they were airtight.

“It's a huge dip, like 12 places or something,” Atkinson said. “That really screams out, to me. Probably the No. 1 stat that I look at.”

It was a wide-open race with seven players getting at least one first-place vote and Mobley getting the top spot on only 35% of the ballots. There was a consensus, however, that he was a top-three player — Mobley was listed somewhere on 85% of ballots, by far the most of anyone in the DPOY chase.

Green won the award in 2017, was a top-three finisher for the fifth time, and was bidding to become the 11th player in NBA history to win it at least twice. Mobley won it for the first time, after finishing third in the voting in 2023. Daniels was a finalist for the first time.

Daniels was second in the voting, with Green third.

Daniels had 229 steals this season, the most in the NBA since Gary Payton had 231 for the Seattle SuperSonics in 1995-96. Daniels was also the first player to average more than 3.00 steals per game since Robertson for the Milwaukee Bucks in 1990-91. Nate McMillan averaged 2.959 in 1993-94 for Seattle; John Stockton averaged 2.976 in 1991-92 for the Utah Jazz.

“Clearly, in my mind, he’s the defensive player of the year,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder told reporters last month. “I think in a lot of people’s minds, the things that he’s doing, even offensively the double-doubles. I think maybe the conversation should go to his character, because, as I’ve thought about and answered those questions about his balance, his anticipation, a lot of the attributes that allow him to do are usually focused on what he does on the court. And I think the correlation between who he is as a player and who he is as a person is very high.”

Based on Daniels, Green and Mobley all being finalists, it's reasonable to think that they will be on the All-Defensive team when it is released by the NBA later this spring. It would be the ninth All-Defensive selection for Green, the second for Mobley and the first for Daniels.

Minnesota's Rudy Gobert won the award last season, his record-tying fourth DPOY trophy.

The award was voted on earlier this month by a global panel of 100 writers and broadcasters who cover the league. The NBA releases a list of three finalists for its seven major individual awards — MVP, Most Improved Player, Coach of the Year, Clutch Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year — after the votes are counted but keeps the order of finish a secret until the results are broadcast.

Daniels got 25 first-place votes and Green received 15. Oklahoma City’s Lu Dort got 11 to finish fourth, Houston’s Amen Thompson was fifth and had nine first-place votes, and Ivica Zubac of the Los Angeles Clippers got four first-place votes and was sixth.

Jackson was seventh, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo got a first-place vote and was eighth, Portland’s Toumani Camara was ninth, and three players — Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Boston’s Derrick White — tied for 10th.

Gobert got one third-place vote and was 13th.

Earlier this week, Boston’s Payton Pritchard won sixth man of the year and New York’s Jalen Brunson won clutch player of the year.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Miami Heat forward Andrew Wiggins (22) shoots between Cleveland Cavaliers forward De'Andre Hunter, behind guard Ty Jerome (2) and Evan Mobley (4) in the first half in Game 1 of an NBA first-round playoff series, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley (4) left, dunks over Miami Heat forward Haywood Highsmith (24) in the first half in Game 1 of an NBA first-round playoff series, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley (4) reaches for a rebound between Miami Heat forward Andrew Wiggins, left, and center Bam Adebayo (13) in the first half in Game 2 of an NBA first-round playoff series, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) looks to shoot against Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels (5) in the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game, Friday, April 18, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green yells at Houston Rockets fans from the bench after leaving the game during the second half of Game 2 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets in Houston, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's photo portrait display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.

The wall text, which summarized Trump's first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum's “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen Sunday, did not include any extended text.

The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

Trump's original “portrait label," as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump's Supreme Court nominations and his administration's development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”

Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”

Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Trump's “unmatched aura ... will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”

The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents' painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries such as what had been part of Trump's display.

Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.

Ingle did not answer questions about whether Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.

The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Trump from its collection before putting up Torok's work.

“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”

For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.

And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”

Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents U.S. history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation's development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.

In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery's director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian's governing board, but she ultimately resigned.

At the White House, Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — with the exception of Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.

The White House said at the time that Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Trump's two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure while those under Biden's autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”

Barrow reported from Atlanta.

People react to a photograph of President Donald Trump on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Visitors to the National Portrait Gallery walk past the portrait of President Donald Trump, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Visitors stop to look at a photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

A photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Anna Johnson)

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)