Bucks' Jrue Holiday named NBA's Teammate of the Year once again

Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday is the recipient of theTwyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award, the NBA announced today.This honor recognizes the player who's deemed the best teammatebased on his selfless play, leadership and dedicaton to theteam.

This is Holiday's third time winning the Teammate of the Yearaward, as he also won it last season and in 2019-20. The award hasbeen around for a decade, as it was first handed out in the 2012-13season.

Unlike the other end-of-season awards, this honor is voted on byNBA players, who choose the winner from a list of 12 finalists (sixfrom each conference) selected by a panel of team executives.Nearly 400 NBA players voted on this award.

Holiday received 57 first-place votes and 1,359 total votingpoints. Brooklyn Nets wing Mikal Bridges was the runner-up, with 39first-place votes and 1,190 total voting points.

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (42 first-place votes,1,117 total points), New York Knicks guard Derrick Rose (36first-place votes, 1,097 total points) and Miami Heat forwardUdonis Haslem (52 first-place votes, 1,023 total points) roundedout the top-five.

Here are the complete voting results:

The Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award is named for JackTwyman and Maurice Stokes, whose storied friendship transcendedtheir Hall-of-Fame accomplishments. Twyman and Stokes wereteammates on the Rochester/Cincinnati Royals from 1955-58. In thelast game of the 1957-58 regular season, Stokes sustained an injurythat led to him falling into a coma days later and becomingpermanently paralyzed. He was diagnosed with post-traumaticencephalopathy, a brain injury that damaged his motor-controlcenter. 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 MemorialBasketball 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 enshrinedinto the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Twyman, who wasinducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983, died in 2012.