Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday has won the NBA’s sportsmanship award for the second time, making him the fifth player in league history to receive that trophy in multiple years.
Holiday received close to 34% of the first-place votes cast by nearly 400 current NBA players to decide the award winner.
Jarrett Allen of the Cleveland Cavaliers finished second, Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks was third, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder was fourth, Dorian Finney-Smith of the Los Angeles Lakers was fifth and Franz Wagner of the Orlando Magic was sixth.
“In 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,” Celtics team president Brad Stevens said in a released statement. “There 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.”
The first time Holiday won the award was in 2021, when he was with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Holiday, 34, joins four-time winner Mike Conley, three-time winner Grant Hill and two-time winners Jason Kidd and Kemba Walker as multiyear recipients of the award. Holiday will receive the Joe Dumars Trophy, named for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, a two-time NBA 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 league’s 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, with one from each division.
Holiday is also a three-time recipient of the teammate of the year award and is a finalist again this season for the NBA’s social justice champion honor. That award has been in existence for five years; Holiday has been a finalist in three of them.
He is a two-time NBA All-Star, two-time league champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and six-time all-defensive team selection.
The sportsmanship honor is the eighth award to be announced by the NBA since the end of the regular season. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors won the teammate of the year award, and teammate Draymond Green won the hustle award; those honors, like the sportsmanship award, 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: Dyson Daniels of the Atlanta Hawks won most improved player, Stephon Castle of the San Antonio Spurs won rookie of the year, Evan Mobley of the Cavaliers won defensive player of the year, Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks won clutch player of the year and Payton Pritchard of the Celtics won sixth man of the year.
Awards that will be announced later in the playoffs include MVP (either Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks or Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets), coach of the year (either Kenny Atkinson of the Cavaliers, J.B. Bickerstaff of the Detroit Pistons or Ime Udoka of the Houston Rockets), along with the all-league, all-defensive and all-rookie teams.