Overview
- Keldon Johnson was announced Wednesday as Sixth Man of the Year, earning 63 of 100 first-place votes and 404 points, with Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. second at 331.
- Johnson came off the bench in all 82 games, the league’s only player to do so this season, and averaged 13.2 points and 5.4 rebounds on 51.9% shooting.
- His 1,081 points as a reserve set a Spurs single-season record and he joins Manu Ginóbili as the franchise’s only Sixth Man winners.
- He helped power a 62-20 season for San Antonio, which also celebrated Victor Wembanyama’s unanimous Defensive Player of the Year earlier this week.
- The Spurs’ series with Portland is tied 1-1 heading into Friday’s Game 3 in Portland, and Wembanyama’s concussion protocol status makes Johnson’s bench role and leadership more pivotal; Johnson also shared that his grandfather’s cancer battle made this a personally difficult year.