The Nets’ season has been chaotic.
Kyrie Irving chose not to get vaccinated, rendering him ineligible for home games nearly the entire season. After initially holding him from road games, the Nets determined their chemistry was too shot anyway and let him play part-time. Irving and Harden didn’t get along. Neither did Kevin Durant and Harden. Durant got hurt. Harden passive-aggressively forced a trade. Paul Millsap asked out. Ben Simmons arrived in Brooklyn and has yet to play. Barely noticed among the bigger issues: Joe Harris – who was expected to be the nets’ fourth-best player – has missed nearly the entire season due to injury.
Meanwhile, Patty Mills – coming off spending his summer leading Australia to the bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics – played 81 of 82 games. The 33-year-old kept himself in shape, played with effort and enthusiasm and carried himself with class.
NBA release:Brooklyn Nets guard Patty Mills is the recipient of the Joe Dumars Trophy for winning the 2021-22 NBA Sportsmanship Award, the NBA announced today. The annual award is designed to honor a player who best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court.
Each NBA team nominated one of its players for the NBA Sportsmanship Award. From the list of 30 team nominees, a panel of league executives selected one finalist from each of the NBA’s six divisions. Current NBA players selected the winner from the list of six finalists, with nearly 300 players submitting their votes through confidential balloting conducted by the league office.
Here’s full voting with first-, second-, third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-place votes and total voting points:
1. Patty Mills (Nets): 58-54-69-35-52-37-1,975
2. Jeff Green (Nuggets): 60-61-38-50-25-41-1,841
3. Bam Adebayo (Heat): 38-46-56-67-57-46-1,776
4. Mikal Bridges (Suns): 52-54-34-54-37-50-1,727
5. Darius Garland (Cavaliers): 43-56-49-40-48-40-1,704
6. Jaren Jackson Jr. (Grizzlies): 37-17-42-42-69-74-1,345
It obviously an honor to be nominated, let alone become a finalist. Some players wouldn’t come anywhere near a list for good sportsmanship.
But it stands out how distant of a last Jaren Jackson is. There’s a smaller gap in voting points between first and fifth than between fifth and sixth-place Jackson.
