Jrue Holiday of the Boston Celtics has won the NBA’s sportsmanship award for the second time, making him the fifth player in league history to win that trophy in multiple years.
Holiday received about 34% of the first-place votes cast by nearly 400 current NBA players to decide the award winner.
Cleveland鈥檚 Jarrett Allen finished second, Dallas鈥 Kyrie Irving was third, Oklahoma City鈥檚 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was fourth, the Los Angeles Lakers鈥 Dorian Finney-Smith was fifth and Orlando鈥檚 Franz Wagner was sixth.
鈥淚n my experience, some of the best competitors are those who pair a quiet confidence with humility, show respect for the competition with their own preparation and work, and have the stamina to navigate the ups and downs of a season with grit and perspective,鈥 Celtics President Brad Stevens said. 鈥淭here is no better example of this than Jrue. He is the ultimate teammate and sets a great example for those striving to compete with integrity. His game does his talking, and his impact, on and off the court, goes well beyond his game.鈥
Holiday joins four-time winner Mike Conley, three-time winner Grant Hill and two-time winners Jason Kidd and Kemba Walker as people to win the award more than once. Holiday will receive the Joe Dumars Trophy, named for the Basketball Hall of Famer, a two-time champion and the inaugural winner of the sportsmanship award after the 1995-96 season.
Dumars recently left his role as an NBA executive to return to his native Louisiana as executive vice president of basketball operations for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Each of the NBA’s 30 teams nominated one player for the sportsmanship award, and league executives narrowed that list down to six finalists 鈥 one from each division.
Holiday is also a three-time recipient of the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award and is a finalist again this season for the NBA’s Social Justice Champion Award. That award has been in existence for five years; Holiday has been a finalist in three of them.
He is a two-time All-Star, two-time NBA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and six-time All-Defensive team selection.
The sportsmanship award is the eighth award to be announced by the NBA since the end of the regular season. Golden State鈥檚 Stephen Curry won the and his Warriors teammate Draymond Green won the ; those awards, like the sportsmanship one, are not selected by the panel of 100 global reporters and broadcasters who vote for other top NBA season honors.
Other award winners so far this season: Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels won , San Antonio鈥檚 Stephon Castle won , Cleveland鈥檚 Evan Mobley won , New York鈥檚 Jalen Brunson won and Boston鈥檚 Payton Pritchard won
Awards that will be announced later in the playoffs include MVP (either Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver鈥檚 Nikola Jokic or Milwaukee鈥檚 Giannis Antetokounmpo), coach of the year (either Detroit鈥檚 J.B. Bickerstaff, Cleveland鈥檚 Kenny Atkinson or Houston鈥檚 Ime Udoka), plus the All-NBA, All-Rookie and All-Defensive teams.
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