Kyle Korver was named the winner of the 2014-15 NBA Sportsmanship Award and will be presented with the Joe Dumars Trophy, the league announced Wednesday. Korver is the first Hawks player to receive the honor in its 11 years history.
Korver received 87 of 317 first-place votes and 2,351 points in voting by fellow NBA players. As the Southeast divisional winner, he was one of six finalists along with the Raptors’ Amir Johnson (Atlantic), the Bulls’ Pau Gasol (Central), the Thunder’s Nick Collison (Northwest), the Lakers’ Jeremy Lin (Pacific) and the Pelicans’ Anthony Davis (Southwest). The finalists were awarded 11 points for each first-place vote, nine points for each second-place vote, seven points for each third-place vote, five points for each fourth-place vote, three points for each fifth-place vote and one point for each sixth-place vote.
“It’s a great honor,” Korver said Wednesday morning. “You just try to keep on doing the right things and be present in relationships. Life is bigger than basketball. It’s a nice thing.”
Korver will be presented with the award before Wednesday’s Game 5 of the Hawks’ Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the Nets at Philips Arena.
The NBA will make a $10,000 donation on behalf of Korver to his charity of choice, Helping Hand Rescue Mission. The league will also make $5,000 donations to the other five divisional winners’ charities of choice: Blessings in a Backpack for Johnson; Gasol Foundation for Gasol; Special Care, Inc. for Collison; Partnership for the Advancement & Immersion of Refugees for Lin; and Audubon Nature Institute for Davis.
Each team nominated one of its players for the award. The six divisional winners from among 30 team nominees were selected by Mike Bantom, NBA Executive Vice President, Referee Operations; Rod Thorn, NBA President, Basketball Operations; Kiki Vandeweghe, NBA Senior Vice President, Basketball Operations; NBA Cares Ambassadors Jason Collins and Bob Lanier, a Hall of Fame center; and Roger Mason, Deputy of the NBA Players Association.
The annual award reflects the ideals of sportsmanship or ethical behavior, fair play and integrity in amateur and professional basketball. The trophy is named for the Hall of Famer Dumars, the award’s first recipient, in 1995-96. The Grizzlies’ Mike Conley won the award last season.
FINAL VOTING
Player, Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th Points
Kyle Korver, Atlanta 87 70 66 31 42 21 2,351
Anthony Davis, New Orleans 56 76 60 55 53 17 2,171
Pau Gasol, Chicago 66 54 58 54 39 46 2,051
Nick Collison, Oklahoma City 35 49 39 70 52 72 1,677
Amir Johnson, Toronto 45 35 35 57 62 83 1,609
Jeremy Lin, Los Angeles Lakers 28 33 59 50 69 78 1,553
