THE NBA announced on Wednesday that San Antonio Spurs swingman Keldon Johnson has been voted the league’s Sixth Man of the Year by a 100-member global media panel.
The seventh-year veteran earned the John Havlicek Trophy for delivering 13.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game while shooting 51.9% from the field and 36.3% from 3-point range. He was the only player in the league to come off the bench in all 82 games.
“It’s a little emotional,” Johnson ranked as the No. 5 scorer and No. 4 rebounder on a squad that posted the league’s second-best record (62-20) during the regular season.
The 26-year-old Kentucky product has spent his entire NBA career with the Spurs after being drafted with the 29th overall pick in 2019. He joins Manu Ginobili (2007-08) as the only Spurs to be named Sixth Man of the Year.
During Johnson’s first four years in the league he was an everyday starter for the Spurs, starting in 205 of the 224 games he appeared in.
Johnson received 63 of the 100 first-place votes and collected 404 points. The Miami Heat’s Jaime Jaquez, Jr., claimed 34 first-place votes and finished second in the balloting with 331 points. Jaquez averaged 15.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists while serving as a reserve in 74 of his 75 appearances this year.
Denver’s Tim Hardaway, Jr. took third in the voting while Minnesota’s Naz Reid, Detroit’s Isaiah Stewart and New York’s Mitchell Robinson each received one first-place vote. — Reuters
