Spurs’ Keldon Johnson named 2025-26 Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year
(AP) — Keldon Johnson was the final backup for the San Antonio Spurs this season.
He performed in all 82 video games, all off the bench, changing into solely the second NBA participant in the final decade to try this. He grew to become the first Spurs participant to attain 1,000 factors as a reserve in a season. And all 12 months lengthy, San Antonio touted him as the greatest backup in the league.
Voters appeared to agree — and the Spurs have one other award winner.
San Antonio Spurs guard-forward Keldon Johnson has been named the 2025-26 Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year, profitable the John Havlicek Trophy. pic.twitter.com/IpSvsiHNQ9
—NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 22, 2026
Johnson was introduced Wednesday evening as the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, becoming a member of Manu Ginobili in 2008 as the solely Spurs to win that award. It’s the first particular person NBA award for Johnson, who was half of the US Olympic workforce that received gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
“I started for a long time,” Johnson stated on ESPN. “Now, it’s my time to come off the bench. I just continue to analyze the game, come off the bench, go in there and just do my thing.”
The second 🥹 pic.twitter.com/byEMuf9EbT
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) April 22, 2026
Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Denver’s Tim Hardaway Jr. had been the different finalists. Jaquez led all reserves in scoring and double-digit video games for the Heat, whereas Hardaway led all reserves with 205 3-pointers and was fourth in scoring for the Nuggets.
Hardaway and Jaquez tied for ninth in 2024. Hardaway was additionally fifth in 2021, tenth in 2017 and tied for thirteenth as a rookie in 2014.
Voting Results
It was the end result of a two-year run like few others for Johnson, who has appeared in 159 video games over the previous two seasons — at all times coming off the bench. No different participant in the NBA has performed anyplace close to that many video games with out a begin in that span.
“I wanted to be part of something special here in San Antonio,” Johnson stated. “I knew that in order for me to really be the best for our team that coming off the bench was probably my best possibility. At first, it was tough. I had to (control) my ego and put the team first. After that, the sky was the limit.”
It was the third award the NBA has handed out this postseason, the second received by the Spurs and the first with any actual intrigue about who was going to win.
On Monday, San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama was the first-ever unanimous choice as Defensive Player of the Year. And on Tuesday, reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City was named the Clutch Player of the Year — getting 96 of the 100 potential first-place votes.
The league’s Sportsmanship Award winner shall be introduced Thursday, with one participant from every division — Miami’s Bam Adebayo (Southeast), San Antonio’s Harrison Barnes (Southwest), Gilgeous-Alexander (Northwest), Golden State’s Al Horford (Pacific), Indiana’s TJ McConnell (Central) and Boston’s Derrick White (Atlantic) — chosen as the finalists. That award is voted on by gamers, not the media panel that decides most different award winners.
The Most Improved Player award — both Nickeil Alexander-Walker of Atlanta, Deni Avdija of Portland or Jalen Duren of Detroit — shall be revealed Friday.
Other awards which might be coming however haven’t had their announcement dates revealed are Coach of the Year (Detroit’s JB Bickerstaff, San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson or Boston’s Joe Mazzulla), Rookie of the Year (Philadelphia’s VJ Edgecombe, Dallas’ Cooper Flagg or Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel) and MVP (Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver’s Nikola Jokic).
