Rudy Gobert has won the Defensive Player of the Year award three times in the last four years. Right now, however, the Utah Jazz star is not considered to be the frontrunner to defend his title.

Gobert himself has spoken out about what he clearly feels is an atrocity. The Jazz big man heaped praise on the other candidates for this year's DPOY crown, but he also made it abundantly clear that in his mind, this title belongs to him again this season:

“You know, there's a lot of great defenders in this league, and as they should, it's great that a lot of guys want to win this award, but I think it's just about impact,” Gobert told ESPN's Malika Andrews. “Who is having the most impact for their respective teams? Over the years, I've been trying to, everytime I step on the court, translates what I do into wins and to impacting my team in a positive way defensively. This year again, we're back. Not as good as last year, collectively, but still a very good defensive team, and when you look at the numbers, they don't lie. I mean they speak for themselves.”

Gobert is obviously a numbers guy and he's been reiterating that this should be one of, if not the most important category that must be looked at when deciding the winner of this coveted award. This season, the 29-year-old is averaging 15.5 points, a league-leading 14.7 rebounds (11.1 boards on the defensive end), and 2.1 blocks per game. Those are some elite numbers and there's no denying that Gobert should, at the very least, be one of the favorites to be named as DPOY this season.

Then again, there are other numbers that come into play as well. The Jazz are 10th in the league in terms of points allowed for their opponents. They are also 10th in opponent field goal percentage. Their defensive rating of 110.4 is ranked 11th in the NBA.

Be that as it may, Gobert remains confident in his credentials. He is also under the belief that he's been too consistent for his own good. When asked if he feels the bar is higher for him given that he's won the award thrice in the past, the Jazz center was brutally honest in his response:

“For sure, for sure,” Gobert stated. “It's kinda human nature when someone does the same thing over and over and over every year, and is really being consistent doing it, we can take that for granted. I kinda knew it was coming, but this year I really felt like people kind like, ‘Okay, Rudy's doing this, but let's see what ther guys are doing. Let's stop looking at the numbers, stop looking at the impact, and then find more exciting narratives out there.' I don't really blame them — it's a little unfair — but it's human nature.”

Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics, Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat, and the Phoenix Suns' Mikal Bridges are the trio of names that many consider as the top contenders for this year's DPOY crown. Gobert is still in the mix, though, in what is looking like a tightly-contested four-horse race.

Gobert knows that he's not the most exciting player out there. However, he is still adamant that he deserves as much of a look as the other players in contention:

“I'm most exciting, I don't know,” Gobert said. “I'm not the most fun to watch, for sure, but once again, the numbers speak for themselves. It's all about what you do every single night for your team. There's a lot of highlights we can show, there's a lot of narratives we can put out there, but at the end of the day, the data speaks for itself.”

The Jazz star ended his interview with a bold statement about how he believes the DPOY voting system is broken. Gobert firmly believes that he's being victimized by his own consistency and that it just isn't fair:

“If anybody else not named Rudy Gobert was doing what I'm doing this year and having the impact that I have this year, they would be the frontrunner and it would be clear. So why not? If I'm being consistent why should I be penalized for being consistent year after year?” he said.

These are some valid questions raised by Gobert. At the end of the day, the voting system is indeed subjective and the voters are truly susceptible to the narratives. Is Rudy Gobert really being treated unfairly here?