NBA Sportsmanship Award

• 1. Introduction

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  Joe Dumars, a guard for the Detroit Pistons, was the first player ever handed what would become the NBA Sportsmanship Award. His name now lives on the trophy itself. Every year since, the league has asked a simple question: which player best shows ethical behavior, fair play, and integrity on the court? The answer has nothing to do with scoring averages or championship rings. What determines this prize is the conduct of the player, not the quality of the playbook.

  How does an award like this actually get decided in a league of professional competitors? Who holds the record for winning it most? And which franchises have built a culture where players keep earning it, year after year?

• 2. The Award Itself

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  Winning the NBA Sportsmanship Award does not depend on being an elite performer. The league's official language describes the ideal recipient as someone who "exemplifies the ideals of sportsmanship on the court with ethical behavior, fair play, and integrity." Excellence of play is explicitly not a requirement.

  The selection process moves through several stages. Each of the 30 NBA teams nominates one of its own players. A panel then reviews those nominees and selects one winner from each of the league's divisions. Those divisional winners become finalists, and from there, the players of the league itself cast votes. The voting uses a weighted points system: eleven points go to each first-place vote, nine to second, seven to third, five to fourth, three to fifth, and one point to any sixth-place vote. The player with the highest cumulative total wins, regardless of whether they led in first-place votes alone.

  Since 2000, the winner receives the Joe Dumars Trophy, a physical object that carries the inaugural recipient's name into every future ceremony.

• 3. Mike Conley's Record

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  Mike Conley has claimed the award four times, a record that stands above every other player in NBA history. His wins came in 2014, 2016, 2019, and 2023. Three of those came while he played for the Memphis Grizzlies; the fourth came after he moved to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

  No other player has matched that number. Grant Hill comes closest, having won the award three times across his time with the Orlando Magic and the Phoenix Suns, with victories in 2005, 2008, and 2010. Jason Kidd won it back-to-back in 2012 and 2013, representing both the Dallas Mavericks and the New York Knicks. Kemba Walker took it in consecutive seasons in 2017 and 2018, both times as a Charlotte Hornet. Jrue Holiday has also reached the two-win mark, winning in 2021 with the Milwaukee Bucks and again in 2025 with the Boston Celtics.

• 4. Teams and Patterns

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  At the franchise level, the San Antonio Spurs and the Memphis Grizzlies each have three award winners in their history. The Spurs earned recognition across three separate players and seasons, and Memphis produced three of Mike Conley's four wins. Several franchises have multiple winners as well, including Seattle, Phoenix, Charlotte, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Boston.

  At the opposite end of the ledger, some of the NBA's most storied franchises have never produced a winner. The Utah Jazz, Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, Miami Heat, Portland Trail Blazers, and Houston Rockets all have zero award winners to their names.

  The award has a direct counterpart in the WNBA called the Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award. Like the NBA version, the Kim Perrot Award does not require the recipient to be one of the league's top competitors, keeping the focus on conduct rather than performance. Grant Hill, whose three wins place him second all-time, is also a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.