I like the idea of the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award. It’s noble to honor the NBA’s best teammate.
Chauncey Billups won the inaugural award in 2013, and Shane Battier took it last year. Both seem to be good teammates.
As does Tim Duncan, who won this year.
Watch for the fine print, though.
NBA release:NBA players have selected the San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan as the recipient of the 2014-15 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award. The award recognizes the player deemed the best teammate based on selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment and dedication to team.
A panel of NBA Legends nominated six players from each conference for the award and then nearly 300 NBA players submitted their votes through confidential balloting conducted by the league office.
Here are the full results (first-place votes, second-place votes, third-place votes, fourth-place votes, fifth-place votes, total points):
1. Tim Duncan, San Antonio (72-59-44-49-21-1494)
2. Vince Carter, Memphis (28-39-30-28-21-818)
3. Elton Brand, Atlanta (21-27-44-23-19-707)
4. Ryan Anderson, New Orleans (31-29-12-19-23-653)
5. Jameer Nelson, Denver (39-14-13-22-33-652)
6. Mike Miller, Cleveland (16-23-26-41-29-603)
7. Steve Blake, Portland (18-23-24-27-22-564)
8. Pau Gasol, Chicago (15-24-20-21-27-508)
9. Andre Iguodala, Golden State (19-18-21-19-15-493)
10. Udonis Haslem, Miami (15-13-24-22-13-440)
11. Caron Butler, Detroit (14-17-20-17-20-430)
12. Al Jefferson, Charlotte (11-13-21-20-46-412)
In case you missed it: “Players were not allowed to vote for a teammate.”
A lot of players outside San Antonio think Duncan is a good teammate. OK. That’s nice. Is that really worth celebrating, though?
They ought to rename it the Twyman-Stokes Hearsay Award.