NEW YORK (AP) — Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday has won the Joe Dumars Trophy as the NBA player who best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court.
Each NBA team nominated a player for the award. After a panel of league executives chose one finalist from each of the NBA’s six divisions, 343 current players confidentially cast votes to select the winner.
“Just knowing that it came from the players, the guys who go through this with me and put their bodies on the line, train in the offseason, it means a lot,” Holiday said Friday.
Other finalists were Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Sacramento’s Harrison Barnes, Minnesota’s Josh Okogie, Boston’s Kemba Walker and San Antonio’s Derrick White.
Holiday received 130 first-place votes and 2,752 total points in the balloting. Walker, who won this award in 2017 and 2018, was second with 2,474 points.
Last season, Holiday won the NBA’s Twyman-Stokes teammate of the year award.
The 30-year-old Holiday averaged 17.7 points, 6.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds in 59 games this season during his first year with Milwaukee. Holiday’s Bucks begin a second-round playoff series with the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday at Brooklyn.
Holiday donated part of his 2019-20 salary to form the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund with his wife, who won two Olympic gold medals and a World Cup as a midfielder with the U.S. women’s national soccer team.
His family’s foundation recently opened a second round of funding to provide up to $1 million in grant money to fund Black-owned businesses and Black-led organizations in the Milwaukee, New Orleans, Indianapolis and Los Angeles areas.
TOP PHOTO: FILE – Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday (21) shoots against Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke in the first half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, March 4, 2021, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)
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