Basketball Bundesliga Best Defender

The Basketball Bundesliga Best Defender (German: Basketball Bundesliga Bester Verteidiger) is an annual Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) award given since the 2002–03 season to the league's best defensive player. American player Immanuel McElroy is the all-time record holder for most awards, with five.

Winners

Quantez Robertson won the award in 2016

Daniel Theis won the award in 2017

Yorman Polas Bartolo won the award two consecutive times in 2019 and 2021

Key

Player (X)	Denotes the number of times the player has won the award
Club (X)	Name of the club and the number of times a player of it has won the award (if more than one)
*	Inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame
^	Denotes player who is still active in the Bundesliga

Season	Player	Position[a]	Nat.	Team	Ref(s)
2002–03	Quadre Lollis	Forward	United States	Alba Berlin
2003–04	Oluoma Nnamaka	Forward	Sweden	Telekom Baskets Bonn
2004–05	Koko Archibong	Forward	Nigeria[b]	GHP Bamberg
	Matej Mamić	Forward	Croatia	Alba Berlin
2005–06	Koko Archibong (2)	Forward	Nigeria[b]	GHP Bamberg
2006–07	Immanuel McElroy	Guard	United States	Alba Berlin
2007–08	Immanuel McElroy (2)	Guard	United States	Alba Berlin
2008–09	Immanuel McElroy (3)	Guard	United States	Alba Berlin
2009–10	Immanuel McElroy (4)	Guard	United States	Alba Berlin	[1]
2010–11	Immanuel McElroy (5)	Guard	United States	Alba Berlin	[1]
2011–12	Anton Gavel	Guard	Germany[c]	Brose Baskets	[2]
2012–13	Anton Gavel (2)	Guard	Germany[c]	Brose Baskets	[3]
2013–14	Cliff Hammonds	Guard	United States	Alba Berlin	[4]
2014–15	Cliff Hammonds (2)	Guard	United States	Alba Berlin	[5]
2015–16	Quantez Robertson^	Guard	United States	Fraport Skyliners	[6]
2016–17	Daniel Theis	Center	Germany	Brose Bamberg	[7]
2017–18	Thomas Walkup^	Guard	USA	Riesen Ludwigsburg	[8]
2018–19	Yorman Polas Bartolo	Forward	Cuba[d]	Telekom Baskets Bonn	[9]
2019–20	No award was given, due to the shortened season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[10]
2020–21	Yorman Polas Bartolo (2)^	Forward	Cuba[d]	Riesen Ludwigsburg	[11]
2021–22	Justin Simon^	Shooting guard	United States	Riesen Ludwigsburg	[12]
2022–23	Selom Mawugbe^	Center	United States	Rostock Seawolves	[13]
2023–24	Javon Bess^	Swingman	United States	BG Göttingen	[14]
2024–25	Nick Weiler-Babb^	Swingman	Germany	Bayern Munich	[15]

Awards won by player

Player	Total
Immanuel McElroy	4
Yorman Polas Bartolo	2
Anton Gavel	2
Koko Archibong	2
Cliff Hammonds	2

Notes

1. The player's primary position is listed.
2. Koko Archibong also owns American nationality.
3. Anton Gavel also owns Slovak nationality.
4. Polas Bartolo, born in Cuba, gained the German nationality in 2015. He represents Cuba internationally.