Keldon Johnson honored
- Spurs guard Keldon Johnson won the 2025-26 NBA Sixth Man of the Year award. ( ) - The award recognition was widely shared across social sports feeds and highlight packages. (x.com) - The award caps a breakout bench season and affects Johnson’s role and market visibility. (x.com)
Keldon Johnson won the National Basketball Association’s 2025-26 Sixth Man of the Year award after spending the full season as San Antonio’s top reserve. (nba.com) The league announced the award on Wednesday, April 22, and Johnson became the second Spurs player to win it after Manu Ginobili in 2008. Johnson is 26 and in his seventh National Basketball Association season. (nba.com) (usatoday.com) Johnson appeared in all 82 regular-season games and did not start any of them. He averaged 13.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists while shooting 51.9% from the field. (usatoday.com) (espn.com) The award goes to the league’s top non-starter in the regular season, and voters chose Johnson over Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Denver’s Tim Hardaway Jr. The trophy is named for John Havlicek. (nba.com) (expressnews.com) Johnson’s season formalized a role change that began after San Antonio drafted Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 pick in 2023. By moving Johnson to the bench, the Spurs kept one of their most established scorers in heavy minutes while reshaping the starting group around Wembanyama. (cbssports.com) That shift held all year in 2025-26: Johnson came off the bench every night and gave San Antonio second-unit scoring without leaving the closing lineup conversation. The Spurs reached the playoffs, and Johnson played in the first two games of their first-round series against Portland on April 19 and April 21. (usatoday.com) (espn.com) His regular-season line was lower than the 20-plus points he posted in earlier years as a starter, but his efficiency climbed. Basketball-Reference lists his 2025-26 field-goal percentage at 51.9% and his three-point percentage at 36.3%, both above several of his earlier seasons. (basketball-reference.com) The result puts Johnson in a narrower part of Spurs history. Ginobili had been the franchise’s only Sixth Man winner, and San Antonio had not had another player take the award in the 18 seasons since. (nba.com) For Johnson, the honor turned a bench assignment into an official line on his résumé. For the Spurs, it confirmed that one of their longest-tenured players stayed central even after his job description changed. (nba.com) (cbssports.com)
