Lakers' Anthony Davis Says He'll 'Never' Win NBA DPOY: 'The League Doesn't Like Me'

Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis has thrown in the towel on ever being recognized as the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year.

"I'll never get it," he said to ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "They're not giving it to me. The league doesn't like me. I'm the best defensive player in the league. I can switch 1 through 5. I can guard the pick-and-roll the best in the league, from a big standpoint. I block shots. I rebound.

"I don't know what else to do. I'm over it. I'm just going to do what I got to do to help the team win and try to play for a championship. Accolades and individual awards, I'm done with those."

Davis was omitted from the list of finalists still vying for the honor this season.

The nine-time All-Star has garnered DPOY votes in five different seasons but hasn't factored into the balloting since his runner-up finish in 2019-20.

Injuries undoubtedly played a role in that. Over the next three years, he appeared in 36, 40 and 56 games.

Durability wasn't as much of a problem for Davis this year as he logged 76 appearances. One would expect his 2.3 blocks and 12.6 rebounds per contest combined with his playing time to be enough to at least warrant some DPOY votes, albeit not enough to win.

Since the media (and not the league itself) votes on the NBA's individual awards, plenty of Lakers fans will classify this as writers either failing to properly recognize Davis' defensive achievements or deliberately snubbing him for some reason.

The media isn't the only entity that recently failed to include the 31-year-old among the elite defenders in the league, though.

The Athletic's Sam Amick and Josh Robbins revealed the results of an anonymous player poll Monday. To the question of the NBA's best defender, Davis wasn't among the top 15 answers and instead found himself in the "others receiving votes" category.

The absence of a Defensive Player of the Year nod will be glaring given Davis' versatility and him having led the NBA in blocks on three occasions. Given his age, it looks increasingly like he could be shut out, however.