Damian Lillard Named NBA's Teammate of the Year
A global audience has finally come to appreciate the on-court greatness of Damian Lillard. And across the NBA, his peers have taken notice of the leadership that makes Lillard the foundation of the Trail Blazers' success.
The league announced on Thursday that Lillard has won the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award, given annually to "the player deemed the best teammate based on selfless play, on and off court leadership as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment and dedication to team."
Lillard beat out 11 other nominees, selected by league executives, to earn the honor. Current players then ranked the 12 candidates one-through-five, Lillard emerging with slightly more votes than second-place Chris Paul, who helped propel the Phoenix Suns to the league's second-best record during his first season in the valley.
Also nominated for Teammate of the Year were Malcolm Brogdon of the Indiana Pacers, Joe Harris of the Brooklyn Nets, Tobias Harris of the Philadelphia 76ers, Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat, Joe Ingles of the Utah Jazz, Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors, Boban Marjanovic of the Dallas Mavericks, Paul Millsap of the Denver Nuggets, Theo Pinson of the New York Knicks and Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Lillard put together perhaps the best season of his career in 2020-21, keeping the Blazers afloat in the Western Conference despite significant injuries to Jusuf Nurkic and C.J. McCollum with game-long playmaking brilliance and historic crunch-time scoring. He helped Portland climb out of its April nadir, too, saving some of his best basketball for the final three weeks of the regular season as the Blazers went 10-2, avoiding the play-in tournament.
The award is named for Jack Twyman and Maurice Stokes, teammates with the Rochester/Cincinnati Royals from 1955 to 1958. Stokes suffered an injury in the 1958 season finale that ultimately left him permanently paralyzed, diagnosed with post-traumatic encephalopathy. He was supported for the rest of his life by Twyman, his legal guardian until Stokes' death in 1970.