Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday Wins 2021-22 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award

NBA players have selected Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday as the recipient of the 2021-22 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award, the NBA announced today.

Presented annually since the 2012-13 season, 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.

This is the second Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award for Holiday, who also earned the honor in the 2019-20 season as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.  He is the first player to win the award more than once.

A panel of league executives selected 12 finalists (six from each conference) for the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award.  Current NBA players selected the winner from the list of finalists, with more than 300 players submitting their votes.

In addition to Holiday, the finalists were Chicago Bulls guard-forward DeMar DeRozan, Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gay, Denver Nuggets forward Jeff Green, Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem, Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala, Memphis Grizzlies forward-center Jaren Jackson Jr., Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love, Dallas Mavericks center Boban Marjanović, Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul, Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet and Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams.

Holiday received 964 points (39 first-place votes) in balloting of NBA players.  Marjanović finished in second place with 936 points (48 first-place votes).  DeRozan finished in third place with 898 points (34 first-place votes).  Players were awarded 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for each second-place vote, five points for each third-place vote, three points for each fourth-place vote and one point for each fifth-place vote.

Holiday will be presented with a special edition 75^th Anniversary commemorative trophy today in celebration of the honor, gifted in addition to the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award trophy, which he will receive later.  The commemorative trophy, composed of a solid crystal basketball, features the NBA 75 logo 3D laser etched and suspended within its center.

A 13-year NBA veteran, Holiday was selected by NBA players as the 2020-21 NBA Sportsmanship Award winner last season.  He was also a finalist for the inaugural Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award, which was presented in June 2021.  In 2020, Holiday and his wife, Lauren, a former player for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, launched the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Justice Impact Fund to address socioeconomic inequalities across several communities.

Holiday, 31, averaged 18.3 points, 6.8 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.61 steals in 32.9 minutes in 67 games this season.  Last season, he helped lead Milwaukee to its first NBA championship in 50 years.  An NBA All-Star selection in the 2012-13 season, Holiday has been named to the NBA All-Defensive Team three times.

The Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award is named for Jack Twyman and Maurice Stokes, whose storied friendship transcended their Hall of Fame accomplishments.  Twyman and Stokes were teammates on the Rochester/Cincinnati Royals from 1955-58.  In the last game of the 1957-58 regular season, Stokes sustained an injury that led to his falling into a coma days later and becoming permanently paralyzed.  He was diagnosed with post-traumatic encephalopathy, a brain injury that damaged his motor-control center.  Stokes was supported for the rest of his life by Twyman, who became his legal guardian and advocate.

Twyman helped organize the NBA’s Maurice Stokes Memorial Basketball Game, which raised funds for Stokes’ medical care and, after Stokes’ death in 1970 at age 36, for other players in need.  In 2004, after years of lobbying by Twyman, Stokes was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.  Twyman, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983, died in 2012.

Below are voting totals for the 2021-22 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award.  The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP.

Below is the all-time list of recipients of the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award.

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