NBA All-Defensive First Team

The NBA All-Defensive Team is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) honor given since the 1968–69 NBA season to the best defensive players during the regular season. The All-Defensive Team is generally composed of two five-man lineups, a first and a second team, comprising a total of 10 roster spots. Voting is conducted by a panel of 123 writers and broadcasters. Prior to the 2013–14 NBA season, voting was performed by the NBA head coaches, who were restricted from voting for players on their own team. The players each receive two points for each first team vote and one point for each second team vote. The top five players with the highest point total make the first team, with the next five making the second team. In the case of a tie at the fifth position of either team, the roster is expanded. If the first team consists of six players due to a tie, the second team will still consist of five players with the potential for more expansion in the event of additional ties. Ties have occurred several times, most recently in 2013 when Tyson Chandler and Joakim Noah tied in votes received.

Tim Duncan holds the record for the most total selections to the All-Defensive Team with 15.Kevin Garnett, and Kobe Bryant follow with twelve total honors each, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has eleven total selections. Michael Jordan, Gary Payton, Garnett, and Bryant share the record for most NBA All-Defensive first team selections with nine. Scottie Pippen, Bobby Jones, and Duncan made the first team eight times each. Walt Frazier and Dennis Rodman made the All-Defensive first team seven times.

Ten players born outside the jurisdiction of the United States, plus two players born in U.S. insular areas (territories), have made either the first or second All-Defensive Team—Manute Bol, born in a part of Sudan that is now the independent nation of South Sudan; Hakeem Olajuwon of Nigeria; Patrick Ewing of Jamaica; Dikembe Mutombo of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Andrei Kirilenko, born in the portion of the former Soviet Union that is now Russia; Anderson Varejão of Brazil; Thabo Sefolosha of Switzerland; Duncan and Raja Bell of the U.S. Virgin Islands; Luol Deng, a naturalized citizen of the United Kingdom born in what is now South Sudan; Serge Ibaka, born in the Republic of the Congo and naturalized in Spain; and Marc Gasol, born and primarily raised in Spain. Ewing, Olajuwon, and Kirilenko are naturalized U.S. citizens, and Duncan and Bell are U.S. citizens by birth, but they are still considered international players by the NBA because they were not born in one of the fifty states or Washington, D.C.

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