LeBron James 'highly upset' that he hasn't won Defensive Player of the Year

LeBron James has won a lot of awards. He's been MVP, an All-Star Game MVP and been named to several first-team All-NBA teams. But he's never been named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year and says that he's 'highly upset' about it.

Here's the full quote via CBS Sports:

"I've been highly upset that I've never won Defensive Player of the Year," James said Saturday. "It was a goal of mine. It's still a goal of mine, so we'll see what happens with that the rest of my career.
"But I've always taken that side of the floor very seriously, and being able to guard multiple positions, being able to know what teams are doing out on the floor and putting my teammates in position to be successful, you know, that's always been something I've taken pride in."

It's hard to pinpoint an exact year that James should have won the award and he hasn't been engaged enough on defense in recent years all the time to really enter the discussion. The closest James ever came was in 2013 when he finished second in voting behind Grizzlies center Marc Gasol.

Moving forward, maybe he can win the award if he takes a step back some and does more work on defense. But it would require a level of effort that he hasn't always put forth year after year of late.