Four championships, four MVPs and four Finals MVPs sit on LeBron James’ résumé. Yet one piece of hardware has remained conspicuously absent, and more than a decade later, James still hasn’t completely let go of how close he came to adding it.

The frustration dates back to 2013, when James finished second to Marc Gasol for Defensive Player of the Year. It resurfaced in 2024 when James admitted on The Shop, “I mean, that’s the only award that I don’t have in my house. It kind of stings.” But one of the most decorated perimeter defenders of that era has a very different view of what happened.

“Yo Bron, stop it bro. You ain’t ever had to check nobody bro. His biggest defensive plays are the chase down blocks. That’s his biggest thing. He was sayin he could’ve got Marc Gasol’s award… I didn’t think not one time LeBron deserved that. If Marc didn’t get it, I should’ve got it,” six-time All-Defensive selection Tony Allen said on The Chris Vernon Show.

Allen had his own stake in that race. He finished fifth with 102 points and nine first-place votes, while James finished second with 149 points and 18 first-place votes. Gasol won with 212 points and 30 first-place votes. But Allen’s issue with James went beyond where either man finished on the ballot.

Allen’s argument centered on the difference between defensive versatility and carrying the nightly assignment against an opponent’s biggest perimeter threat. “To see him say for his legacy he should’ve got that award, I’m saying to myself ‘bro every game you came in, you was the hunted. You was the guy.’ All you did was a couple chase-down blocks a game. Name somebody that he had to lock up and get the win?” Allen said.

Allen even went back to Boston’s 2010 Eastern Conference semifinal win over Cleveland. “He locked up Paul Pierce? We made that man go to Miami! The decision started… You ain’t no defensive player. You the GOAT in basketball but not defense,” he said. The Celtics won that series 4-2, but Allen was a reserve averaging 19.9 minutes per game, with Boston using a wider team effort against James rather than Allen serving as his full-time defender.

There is also evidence that complicates Allen’s broader challenge. In the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals, James took the late-game assignment on reigning MVP Derrick Rose, who shot 6-of-27 when guarded by James in the fourth quarters of Games 2 through 5. Two years later, James also took Tony Parker in crucial stretches of the 2013 NBA Finals. Allen’s point may speak to their different defensive roles, but James was hardly limited to chasing opponents down from behind.

And James’ case in 2012-13 went well beyond highlights. He averaged 1.7 steals and 0.9 blocks as Miami went 66-16 and finished fourth in defensive rating. More tellingly, NBA general managers had rated James among the league’s premier perimeter defenders entering that season, while his ability to switch across positions became central to Miami’s aggressive defensive scheme.

Gasol, though, had a formidable case of his own. Memphis allowed an NBA-low 88.7 points per game and finished second in defensive rating, while Gasol averaged 1.7 blocks and 1.0 steals. His impact also showed up in the advanced numbers, where he finished second in defensive win shares and ahead of James in defensive box plus-minus.

What made the result unusual was what happened next. Gasol won DPOY but landed on the All-Defensive Second Team, while both James and Allen made the First Team. The awards were decided by different groups at the time: media members voted for DPOY, while NBA head coaches selected the All-Defensive teams.

There is another wrinkle: Gasol himself later sided with Allen. After James joked in 2020 that Gasol had “my Defensive Player of the Year trophy at his house,” Gasol said, “If anybody, the one that should have claimed that trophy was Tony Allen, from my point of view.”

James’ frustration becomes easier to understand through what he said next on The Shop: “So the year I finished second in Defensive Player of the Year award, the guy who won Defensive Player of the Year didn’t even make First Team All-Defense.”

Eleven years after that ballot, the argument is still alive. Gasol had the numbers and the league’s stingiest scoring defense behind him. James had the First-Team All-Defense selection and a second-place DPOY finish. And Allen, fifth in the same race, remains convinced the trophy belonged in Memphis either way.