Keldon wins Sixth Man

Keldon Johnson won the 2025-26 Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year award on April 22 after spending the entire regular season as San Antonio’s top reserve. (nba.com) The National Basketball Association said Johnson played all 82 games, all off the bench, and scored a Spurs reserve-record 1,081 points. (nba.com) Johnson got 63 first-place votes in the media balloting, ahead of Miami Heat wing Jaime Jaquez Jr., who got 34, while Denver Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. was the other finalist. (espn.com) The award goes to the league’s best bench player in the regular season, and Johnson became only the second Spurs player to win it after Manu Ginobili in 2008. (nba.com) His season fit the role in volume as well as usage: ESPN listed Johnson at 13.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game in 2025-26, and the NBA said his 1,081 bench points were the second-most by any player in the league this season. (espn.com 1) (espn.com 2) The context in San Antonio changed fast over two years. Johnson had been a full-time starter earlier in his career, but he told ESPN that moving to the bench required him to “put the team first.” (espn.com) That shift came during a season when the Spurs finished 62-20 and earned the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, according to ESPN’s final standings. (espn.com) Johnson is also the longest-tenured player on San Antonio’s roster, and Victor Wembanyama told ESPN last month that Johnson had “sacrificed more than anybody” in stats and playing time. (espn.com) For the Spurs, the result adds another individual award to a postseason already marked by Wembanyama’s Defensive Player of the Year win and revives a franchise line once defined by Ginobili’s bench role. (nba.com)