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The NBA announced today that Ben Wallace of the Detroit Pistons has won the 2005-06 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, marking the fourth time in his career that he has captured the trophy as the league’s best defender.

With this year’s honor, Wallace becomes the only player in NBA history to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award four times in five years and joins Dikembe Mutombo as the only players to earn the award in four separate seasons.

The 6-9 center averaged 11.3 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and a career-high 1.8 steals to anchor a defense which ranked third in the league for fewest points allowed per game (90.2). Wallace was the only player in the league to rank in the top 10 in rebounds per game (fourth), blocks per game (ninth) and steals per game (10th). He became only the fifth player in league history to record 100 blocks and 100 steals in six consecutive seasons.

The four-time Defensive Player of the Year led all NBA centers in rebounding and steals, guiding the Pistons to a Central Division crown and the best record in franchise history (64-18). Wallace collected his 7,000th career rebound this season and became one of only 24 players in league history to record 1,600 blocks. Wallace, the all-time Pistons franchise leader in blocks, has finished in the NBA Top 10 in blocks for six consecutive seasons.

Wallace received 420 points, including 58 first-place votes, from a panel of 124 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote received. San Antonio’s Bruce Bowen finished second with 308 points and Utah’s Andrei Kirilenko finished third with 121 points.