Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard is the NBA's defensive player of the year after becoming only the fifth player to lead the league in blocks and rebounds in the same season.

The announcement was made Tuesday.

The 23-year-old Howard is the youngest player to win the award. He led the Magic to 59 wins in the regular season, one shy of tying the best record in franchise history set in the 1995-96 season. Orlando trails Philadelphia 1-0 in the first round of the playoffs.

Howard averaged 13.8 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game this season.

The only other players to be rebounding and blocks champions in the regular season were Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ben Wallace.

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