Brooklyn Nets guard Patty Mills has been named the winner of the 2021-22 NBA Sportsmanship Award, becoming the first Net ever to earn that honor.
Mills will receive the Joe Dumars Trophy that goes with the honor – Dumars was the first winner of the Award in 1995-96 – and as part of the NBA 75 celebration, he will also receive a special 75th Anniversary commemorative trophy: a solid crystal basketball that, per the league, “features the NBA 75 logo 3D laser etched and suspended within its center.”
He also found out in a special way: Nets head coach Steve Nash rolled a video presentation revealing the award while the Nets were at practice ahead of Saturday’s Game 3 against the Celtics, meaning all of Mills’ teammates were around:
The Sportsmanship Award may not be as glamorous as an MVP or other awards, but it does carry a lot of weight given it’s a selection made by peers. Each team nominates one player for the award, and that group of 30 is whittled down to six finalists – one for each division – by a panel of NBA execs. Players then vote for the winner, with nearly 300 participating via secret ballot this season.
Mills received 58 first-place votes and 1,975 total points (on a sliding points scale of 11-9-7-5-3-1 for all first through sixth-place votes) to beat out ex-Net Jeff Green, who got 60 first-place votes but tallied just 1,841 points.
The other four finalists were Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Cleveland’s Darius Garland, Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr., and Phoenix’s Mikal Bridges.
Mills, in his first year in Brooklyn, averaged 11.4 points and 2.3 assists in 29 minutes per game over 81 games. More importantly, he was assessed zero technical fouls, the 11th time in his 13 NBA seasons he was tech-free.
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