Grizzlies center Marc Gasol has won his first NBA Defensive Player of the Year award after anchoring the league's stingiest defense.

The NBA announced Wednesday that Gasol received 212 points and 30 first-place votes. The 28-year-old Gasol becomes the first Grizzlies player to earn defensive player honors.

The 7-foot-1 Spaniard averaged 1.7 blocks and 1.0 steals for a Memphis defense that allowed a league-low 88.7 points per game.

"I'm the first European ever to accomplish this," Gasol said Wednesday at a news conference held in the lobby of the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn. "It's really an honor. Now I think my kids will believe me when I tell them I played in the NBA."

The Grizzlies were 6.8 points per 100 possessions better defensively when Gasol was on the floor, and were considerably more effective on the defensive glass.

The Grizzlies as a whole ranked second in the NBA during the regular season in defensive efficiency, and Gasol was eager to credit teammates as he accepted the award.

"I look at it as the whole team got acknowledged," Gasol said. "I think it's a team effort. It's a team game. There's no way around it. That's how we play basketball. We play as a unit. Defensively, you need five guys to play defense. If one of us is not playing defense, we can't do it."

Tony Allen knows his defense as well, having been named to the NBA's All-Defensive first team last season, and praised his teammate for being honored this year.

"That's my man. That's my man, Marc Gasol. I'd rather him get it than anyone else," Allen said. "If somebody else had gotten Defensive Player of the Year, I would have been highly upset. It just goes to show you how much the Memphis Grizzlies have grown on the defensive end."