Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez Named to 2022-23 KIA NBA All-defensive First Team

MILWAUKEE (May 9, 2023) – Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday and center Brook Lopez have been named to the 2022-23 Kia NBA All-Defensive First Team, the league announced today.

Holiday received 94 First Team votes and four Second Team votes, while Lopez earned 85 First Team votes and 11 Second Team votes. The Kia All-Defensive Team was selected by a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters.

Holiday has now earned All-Defensive team honors in each of his three seasons with the Bucks, while overall this is the fifth time in the last six seasons he has been named All-Defense. Previously, the 6’5” guard earned First Team honors following the 2017-18 and 2020-21 seasons and Second Team honors after the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons. This season, Holiday led the Bucks in both steals per game (1.2) and total steals (79), helping Milwaukee finish with the fourth-best defensive rating in the league.

A finalist for Defensive Player of the Year, Lopez led the league in total blocks this season with a career-high 193 and finished third in the NBA in blocks per game with a career-high 2.49. In his 15th season in the NBA, the 7’1” center logged an NBA-high six games with 6+ blocks, including a career-high, and league-high for the 2022-23 season, nine blocks on March 9 vs. Brooklyn. Overall, Lopez swatted away multiple shots in 51 of his 78 games played this season and also led the league in contested shots with 1,362 – nearly 450 more than the next-closest player who had 917. This is the first time Lopez has earned All-Defensive First Team honors in his career and the second time he has been named All-Defense after earning Second Team honors following the 2019-20 season.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.