NEW YORK – Jason Kidd is a good sport, one of the nicest, most thoughtful guys in the league.
Today, he is being recognized for it.
The Dallas Mavericks guard was announced as the recipient of the Joe Dumars Trophy presented to the 2011-12 NBA Sportsmanship Award winner.
Kidd (Southwest) was one of six divisional winners, which included Cleveland’s Antawn Jamison (Central), the Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Paul (Pacific), Miami’s Shane Battier (Southeast), Minnesota’s Luke Ridnour (Northwest), and New York’s Jeremy Lin (Atlantic).
Kidd received 93 first-place votes (2,501 total points) of a possible 334 from fellow NBA players.
The NBA will make a $10,000 donation on behalf of Kidd to The Jason Kidd Foundation, which is dedicated to improving education among the youth, by ensuring that kids of all ages have the tools needed through mentoring, tutoring and technology programs to succeed in life.
Eleven points were given for each first-place vote, nine points for each second-place vote, seven points for third, five points for fourth, three points for fifth and one point for each sixth-place vote. Each team nominated one of its players for the award.
Former NBA players Greg Anthony, John Crotty, Antonio Davis, Eddie Johnson and Kenny Smith selected the six divisional winners from a pool of 30 team nominees.
The NBA will make a $5,000 donation to each of the divisional winner’s charities of choice: the Battier Take Charge Foundation on behalf of Battier; KaBOOM! on behalf of Jamison; the Jeremy Lin Foundation on behalf of Lin; the CP3 Foundation on behalf of Paul; and the Blaine (Wash.) Boys and Girls Club on behalf of Ridnour.
The annual award reflects the ideals of sportsmanship — ethical behavior, fair play and integrity — in amateur and professional basketball, a key focus of the league’s NBA Cares program efforts. The trophy is named for former Detroit Pistons guard and Hall of Famer Joe Dumars, the award’s first recipient.
Following is a list of this year’s voting totals for 2011-12 the NBA Sportsmanship Award. The balloting was tabulated by independent accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP.
2011-12 NBA SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD VOTING TOTALS
Player, Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th Points
Jason Kidd, Dallas 93 74 69 44 31 16 2501
Shane Battier, Miami 69 67 77 46 40 22 2273
Antawn Jamison, Cleveland 35 69 57 67 59 37 1954
Luke Ridnour, Minnesota 58 38 53 75 51 41 1920
Jeremy Lin, New York 45 35 39 52 67 80 1624
Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers 34 45 29 32 65 115 1452
Following is the all-time list of winners:
ALL-TIME NBA SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD WINNERS
Inaugural: Joe Dumars (1995-96) 2003-04: P.J. Brown, New Orleans
1996-97: Terrell Brandon, Cleveland 2004-05: Grant Hill, Orlando
1997-98: Avery Johnson, San Antonio 2005-06: Elton Brand, L.A. Clippers
1998-99: Hersey Hawkins, Seattle 2006-07: Luol Deng, Chicago
1999-00: Eric Snow, Philadelphia 2007-08: Grant Hill, Phoenix
2000-01: David Robinson, San Antonio 2008-09: Chauncey Billups, Denver
2001-02: Steve Smith, San Antonio 2009-10: Grant Hill, Phoenix
2002-03: Ray Allen, Seattle 2010-11: Stephen Curry, Golden State
2011-12: Jason Kidd, Dallas