Keldon wins Sixth Man
- Spurs guard Keldon Johnson was named the 2025–26 NBA Sixth Man of the Year. - The award was decided by a global 100-voter panel, according to the announcement. - The recognition highlights his bench scoring role and was reported widely across social sports outlets (x.com).
Keldon Johnson is the National Basketball Association’s 2025-26 Sixth Man of the Year after spending the entire season as San Antonio’s top reserve. (nba.com) The league announced the award on April 22, 2026, and said a global media panel of 100 voters picked Johnson for the John Havlicek Trophy. Johnson was one of three finalists, alongside Miami Heat wing Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Denver Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. (nba.com) Johnson appeared in all 82 regular-season games, all off the bench, and averaged 13.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 23.3 minutes for a Spurs team that finished 62-20. San Antonio said he led all National Basketball Association reserves in win shares at 6.4. (nba.com) The Sixth Man award goes to the league’s best non-starter, a role built around second-unit scoring, rebounding and lineup flexibility. Johnson became the only National Basketball Association player this season to play every game without a start. (nba.com) His season stood out in San Antonio’s record book as much as in the voting. Johnson scored 1,081 bench points, the most by a reserve in Spurs history, and became the franchise’s first player to reach 1,000 points in a season without starting. (nba.com) The move to the bench was not new this season. ESPN reported that Johnson had been coming off the bench for two years after previously starting 205 games in his first four National Basketball Association seasons. (espn.com) That shift changed his place in the Spurs rotation as the team moved from rebuilding to the playoffs. The Spurs said Johnson helped San Antonio reach its first postseason since 2019, and teammate Victor Wembanyama told ESPN last month that Johnson “deserves to be the Sixth Man of the Year.” (nba.com) (espn.com) Johnson is the second Spurs player to win the award, joining Manu Ginóbili, who won in 2007-08. The National Basketball Association’s winners list shows Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard won the award in 2024-25. (nba.com) The voting was lopsided near the top. ESPN reported Johnson received 63 first-place votes, while Jaquez received 34, with the remaining first-place votes going to other reserves further down the ballot. (espn.com) On ESPN after the announcement, Johnson said accepting the bench role “was tough” at first and said he had to “put the team first.” Two seasons later, that role produced the first individual National Basketball Association award of his career. (nba.com)
