Ben Simmons received 15 first-place votes as the NBA's defensive player of the year (DPOY) but it was not enough to prevent Rudy Gobert winning the award for the third time.
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A day after his Philadelphia 76ers teammate Joel Embiid was named runner-up in the MVP race, Simmons placed second behind Utah Jazz centre Gobert in the battle for the title of the league's best defender.
The versatile Simmons polled 287 points while Gobert's 464 points included 84-first-place votes from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters.
Simmons made no secret of his desire to win the award and said he believed it was "mine this year".
Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors was third with 76 points.
Gobert led the league in blocked shots and his rim protection helped the Jazz to the best record in the NBA and the Frenchman becomes just the fourth player to win the award at least three times.
Fittingly, the award was announced a night after a game-sealing blocked shot by Gobert in Game 1 of Utah's Western Conference semi-final series against the Los Angeles Clippers.
The 216cm Gobert was the DPOY in 2018 and 2019.
Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace each won it four times and Dwight Howard three.
With Gobert in the middle, the Jazz went 52-20 and earned the overall No.1 seed for the first time.
They limited teams to 44.7 per cent shooting, second-lowest in the league.
Miami's Bam Adebayo earned the other first-place vote and finished fourth while Giannis Antetokounmpo rounded out the top five.
Milwaukee's two-time league MVP Antetokounmpo ended Gobert's reign last year.
Gobert's third DPOY award broke a tie for the team record with Mark Eaton, who died last month at 64.
He averaged 14.3 points and 13.5 rebounds, tying a career high, in 71 games this season.
Gobert's 2.7 blocks per game ranked second in the league.
Australian Associated Press
