Reactions to Jrue Holiday winning Teammate of the Year Award

It’s award season around the NBA and even though the Milwaukee Bucks aren’t represented as some may think they should be, they did pick up a win today!

The league announced that Jrue Holiday won the 2021-22 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award, as voted on by the players. This is Holiday’s second time winning the award as he won it in 2019-20 with the New Orleans Pelicans and becomes the first player to win the award more than once.

Reactions to Jrue Holiday winning the 2021-22 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award

It’s worth repeating that this award is voted on by the players and that Holiday has now won his second of these awards.

Holiday actually received the second-most first-place votes (39) behind Dallas Mavericks big man Boban Marjanovic (48) but finished with more total points at 964 which narrowly edged out Marjanovic’s 936. There were 10 other players nominated for the award, including the Chicago Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan (finished third) and the Phoenix Suns’ Chris Paul (finished fourth).

As well as being his second Teammate of the Year award, Holiday also won the 2020-21 NBA Sportsmanship Award last season and was a finalist for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award. I bring those up because it shows the type of person Holiday is and the character he has.

I’m sure one of the key factors in bringing Holiday in via trade two offseasons ago for general manager Jon Horst was Holiday’s character and the type of person that he is. Every team speaks about building a culture and wanting to bring in the right type of guys to fit that culture.

Holiday may not have been here when Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton were building the foundation of that culture with the Bucks, but he has certainly added to it and helped make the Bucks one of the league’s best teams both on and off the floor.

Holiday has slid right in and become the perfect third star alongside Antetokounmpo and Middleton in terms of his playstyle and personality.

One of the reasons why these three fit so well together is that they are all comfortable letting someone have the ball and take over offensively. That unselfish mentality isn’t common in star players but it permeates through the rest of the roster when they see that the best players on the team are willing to share the glory.

He has received props from those around the league for his defense, whether it be on podcasts or in surveys, but it hasn’t always translated into awards (Holiday has one All-Star appearance back in 2013-14 and has been named to the All-Defense team twice) so it’s good to see Holiday get recognized for something that is almost as important as his play on the court.

For as much as I’ve enjoyed watching Holiday on the court in his two seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks so far, I’ve enjoyed him as a person just as much and we’re lucky to have the Holidays (both Jrue and Lauren) with the organization.

Congratulations on the honor, Jrue!