Celtics’ Derrick White Wins 2025/26 Sportsmanship Award
Celtics guard Derrick White has won the Sportsmanship Award for the 2025/26 season, the league announced today (Twitter link). It marks the second straight year in which a Boston guard has claimed the award, with Jrue Holiday taking it home a year ago prior to being traded to Portland.
The NBA’s Sportsmanship Award has been presented annually since 1995/96 and “honors a player who best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court.”
Each of the league’s 30 teams nominated one of its players for the award, then a panel of league executives narrows that group to six finalists (one from each division) and current players voted for the winner. The trophy for the Sportsmanship Award is named after Joe Dumars, the Hall-of-Fame guard – and current Pelicans head of basketball operations – who won the inaugural award back in ’95/96.
In addition to White, this year’s other finalists were Heat big man Bam Adebayo, Spurs forward Harrison Barnes, Warriors big man Al Horford, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Pacers guard T.J. McConnell.
McConnell finished as the runner-up and actually earned the most first-place votes, receiving 83 to White’s 77. However, the Celtics guard had the significant edge in second-place votes (113) over McConnell (72) and finished with 2,827 total points, comfortably beating out McConnell’s 2,566.
The full voting results can be found here.
While White has never been an NBA All-Star, the 31-year-old has built a strong career résumé that includes an NBA championship in 2024, a pair of All-Defensive second team nods (2023 and 2024), an Olympic gold medal (Paris 2024), and now a Sportsmanship Award.
Victor Wembanyama Named Defensive Player Of The Year
Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama has been named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year for the 2025/26 season, the league announced on Monday (Twitter link). He’s the youngest player in league history to win the award, tweets Shams Charania of ESPN, and is the first player to win it in a unanimous vote, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
Wembanyama, who received all 100 first-place votes, led the NBA in total blocked shots (197) and blocks per game (3.1) by a significant margin and ranked second in defensive rebounds per game (11.5) despite playing just 29.2 minutes per night. His 28.5% defensive rebounding percentage was the highest mark in the league among qualified players.
The Spurs star also limited opponents to a 42.0% field goal percentage and anchored the NBA’s third-best defense. San Antonio allowed 103.6 points per 100 possessions when Wembanyama was on the court and gave up 113.7 points per 100 possessions when he sat.
Wembanyama was the favorite to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2024/25, but a blood clot prematurely ended his season in February, preventing him playing in the 65 games necessary to qualify for consideration. He missed some time this year due to health issues, but met the 65-game criteria during the final week of the regular season.
Thunder big man Chet Holmgren, who previously finished second in Rookie of the Year voting to Wembanyama in 2023/24, once again finished as the runner-up to his conference rival for a major award — he earned the second-most votes for Defensive Player of the Year, including 76 second-place votes and 11 for third place. Holmgren ranked second in the NBA in blocks per game (1.9) and was the primary interior presence on a Thunder team that had the league’s No. 1 defensive rating (106.5).
Pistons wing Ausar Thompson was the top Defensive Player of the Year vote-getter among perimeter players, coming in third behind Wembanyama and Holmgren with nine second-place votes and 33 third-place votes. Thompson ranked first in the NBA in steals per game (2.0) despite playing fewer minutes per contest (26.0) than the seven players who ranked right behind him in that category. Detroit was sandwiched between OKC and San Antonio with the league’s second-best defensive rating (108.9).
A total of 13 players showed up on at least one Defensive Player of the Year ballot, with Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert and Raptors forward Scottie Barnes rounding out the top five, in that order.
Celtics guard Derrick White, Thunder guard Cason Wallace, Rockets guard Amen Thompson, Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, and Knicks forward OG Anunoby each received multiple votes, while Pistons center Jalen Duren, Warriors forward Draymond Green, and Heat big man Bam Adebayo showed up on one ballot apiece.
The full results can be viewed here (via Twitter).
While Defensive Player of the Year honors can, in some cases, ensure that a player qualifies for a higher maximum salary on his next contract, that won’t be the case for Wembanyama despite the fact that he’ll likely sign a maximum-salary rookie extension with the Spurs during the coming offseason. The Rose Rule criteria will require him to win MVP or DPOY or simply earn an All-NBA spot in 2026/27 in order to qualify for a contract that starts at 30% of the ’27/28 cap (instead of 25%).
And-Ones: NBA Awards Picks, G League Awards
Reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander claims two awards on the unofficial ballot of Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports: MVP and Clutch Player of the Year.
To be clear, Devine does have an official vote for year-end awards, but those ballots aren’t sent out until the regular season concludes on April 12. Devine also notes that he may be forced to change some of his picks, depending on which players are eligible.
Victor Wembanyama, for example, needs to play at least 20 minutes in one of San Antonio’s remaining two games to be eligible for awards consideration. The French big man is Devine’s choice for Defensive Player of the Year and is his runner-up for MVP, ahead of Nikola Jokic.
Kon Knueppel (Rookie of the Year) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (Most Improved Player) are a couple of Devine’s other awards picks.
Here are a few more awards-related stories and announcements:
- There’s quite a bit of overlap between Devine’s awards picks and the tentative selections of Zach Harper of The Athletic. Both writers have Joe Mazzulla, J.B. Bickerstaff and Mitch Johnson as the three finalists, in order of how they finish, for Coach of the Year, and Keldon Johnson, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tim Hardaway Jr. as their top three picks for Sixth Man of the Year.
- Michael Pina of The Ringer lists his three All-NBA, two All-Defensive, and two All-Rookie teams. Pina’s first-team All-NBA picks are Kawhi Leonard, Jaylen Brown, Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama and Jokic; his All-Defensive First Team selections are Wembanyama, Derrick White, Scottie Barnes, Ausar Thompson and Chet Holmgren; and his top-five rookies are Knueppel, Cooper Flagg, VJ Edgecombe, Dylan Harper and Derik Queen.
- The NBA G League has announced its All-Defensive and All-Rookie teams, which are each comprised of five players (Twitter links via the NBA). The All-Defensive selections are Jamarion Sharp (Texas Legends), Chris Manon (South Bay Lakers), Alijah Martin (Raptors 905), Andersson Garcia (Mexico City Capitanes) and Jalen Slawson (Noblesville Boom), while the All-Rookie team consists of Raptors 905 standout Martin, Norchad Omier and Sean Pedulla of the San Diego Clippers, Keshon Gilbert (College Park Skyhawks) and RJ Davis (South Bay Lakers). Martin, Manon, Slawson (Pacers), Omier and Pedulla are on two-way contracts with their respective NBA teams.
And-Ones: Perimeter Defenders, Malone, Cooper, Vezenkov
The NBA’s All-Defensive teams tend to be loaded with big men, so Fred Katz of The Athletic put together a hypothetical All-Perimeter Defense team for the 2025/26 season.
Featured among Katz’s first-teamers is Knicks‘ OG Anunoby. Katz points to a game against Denver in which Anunoby guarded Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Cameron Johnson, and Bruce Brown, managing all of those assignments effectively. Anunoby is a key part of why the Knicks are a top-10 defense this season despite having a roster built around Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Also on Katz’s All-Perimeter Defensive first team are Derrick White (Celtics), Scottie Barnes (Raptors), Ausar Thompson (Pistons), and Cason Wallace (Thunder). Thompson’s brother, Amen Thompson of the Rockets, headlines Katz’s second team.
We have more notes from around the world of basketball:
- Michael Malone made news recently when he was named head coach for the University of North Carolina. The former Nuggets head coach had been in the NBA from 2003-25 in various capacities, but will now embrace the challenge of college basketball. Details of Malone’s contract have now been reported, as Brian Murphy of WRAL News in North Carolina writes that he is set to earn $50MM over six years (Twitter link).
- Lakers legend Michael Cooper will be the next head coach at Cal State LA, according to the City News Service at the Los Angeles Daily News. The 70-year-old Hall of Famer spent three seasons as a Lakers assistant coach from 1994-96 before moving to the WNBA, where he served first as a Los Angeles Sparks assistant and then as a head coach, leading them to two championships and being named Coach of the Year in 2000. He was the interim head coach of the Nuggets for 14 games in the 2004/05 season. “I’ve always said it takes five Ds to win a championship: determination, dedication, desire, discipline and decision-making,” Cooper said. “I’ve incorporated those principles into my coaching philosophy, and they will be pillars of what we do here at Cal State LA.”
- Former Kings forward Sasha Vezenkov struggled during the 2023/24 season, his lone year in the NBA. Vezenkov’s agent, Nikos Lotsos, says the 6’9″ shooter made the move stateside because of external pressure, not internal drive, which was one reason why he had an underwhelming year. However, Lotsos also says that Vezenkov never felt that he had the support of then-head coach Mike Brown. “Everyone else wanted him except for Brown,” Lotsos said, according to Stavros Barbarousis and George Adamopoulos of Eurohoops. The agent believes that the lack of faith from the coaching staff is part of why Vezenkov was unable to carve out a consistent role with the team.
NBA Announces Finalists For Sportsmanship, Teammate Of The Year Awards
The NBA announced the 2025/26 finalists for a pair of awards on Tuesday, naming the six players who are eligible to win the Sportsmanship Award for this season, as well as the 12 players who are in the running to be named Teammate of the Year.
The Sportsmanship Award honors the player who “best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court,” per the NBA. Each of the league’s 30 teams nominates one of its players for the award, then a panel of league executives narrows that group to six finalists (one from each division) and current players voted for the winner.
The trophy for the Sportsmanship Award is named after Joe Dumars, the Hall-of-Fame guard who won the inaugural award back in ’95/96. This season’s finalists are as follows (via Twitter):
Bam Adebayo (Heat)- Harrison Barnes (Spurs)
- Al Horford (Warriors)
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder)
- T.J. McConnell (Pacers)
- Derrick White (Celtics)
Gilgeous-Alexander is the only one of this year’s finalists for the Sportsmanship Award who was also nominated last season. Whoever earns the honor for 2025/26 will be a first-time winner. Jrue Holiday took home the Joe Dumars Trophy a year ago.
Meanwhile, the NBA also announced its finalists for the Teammate of the Year award for 2025/26. According to the league, the player selected for the honor is “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.”
The voting process is similar to the Sportsmanship Award — a panel of league executives selects 12 finalists (six from each conference) for the award, then current players vote on the winner.
Holiday is a three-time Teammate of the Year, having earned the honor in 2020, 2022, and 2023. He’s the only past recipient who is among this season’s group of finalists.
Those Teammate of the Year finalists are as follows (via Twitter):
- Desmond Bane (Magic)
- Jalen Brunson (Knicks)
- Pat Connaughton (Hornets)
- De’Aaron Fox (Spurs)
- Jeff Green (Rockets)
- Jrue Holiday (Trail Blazers)
- DeAndre Jordan (Pelicans)
- Duncan Robinson (Pistons)
- Marcus Smart (Lakers)
- Jayson Tatum (Celtics)
- Garrett Temple (Raptors)
- Jaylin Williams (Thunder)
Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Maxey, Celtics, Bassey
When the Sixers put together a big three of Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey, they had a vision that looked something like the team’s Saturday win over the Hornets, Tony Jones writes for The Athletic.
Embiid, George, and Maxey combined for 81 points, 26 rebounds, and nine three-pointers in the victory, with George submitting possibly his best game as a Sixer. Beyond the counting stats, Jones writes, it was evident how the skill sets of the three stars complement each other.
Most importantly, Jones notes, this was a rare example of the trio shining together in a high-stakes game. Philadelphia is battling for playoff positioning and this win gave the team the season tiebreaker over Charlotte, in addition to the tiebreakers it already held over Toronto and Orlando.
With the Sixers just a half-game behind the Hawks and Raptors for a top-six playoff spot, those edges could turn out to be massively important at season’s end.
We have more from around the Atlantic Division:
- Maxey was able to return to the Sixers quicker than anticipated from the tendon injury in his finger that was supposed to sideline him for at least three weeks, thanks in large part to his diligence in the rehab process, Gina Mizell writes for the Inquirer. “I’ve been working my tail off,” Maxey said. “And I want to be there for my team, so I was there.” As Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN adds, the team knew the importance of the game in terms of standings, which prompted Maxey to push himself to play his best ball despite the lengthy absence. “I let the game come to me at the beginning,” said Maxey. “Everybody was like, ‘Dude, all right. We know you just got back. Come on, let’s play.’ And I was like, ‘I got you.‘”
- Jaylen Brown is out for Sunday’s game against the Hornets on Sunday with left Achilles tendinitis, per the Celtics (via Twitter). Derrick White, who was listed as questionable with a right knee contusion, has also been downgraded to out (Twitter link). In their place, Jordan Walsh and Payton Pritchard will start alongside Sam Hauser, Jayson Tatum, and Neemias Queta, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe notes (via Twitter).
- Charles Bassey, on his second 10-day contract, has only made two brief appearances for the Celtics entering Sunday’s game, but he already feels comfortable with the organization, Noa Dalzell writes for CelticsBlog. “When the coach says, ‘Okay, there’s optional stuff, but you don’t [have to] come in’, everybody still shows up,” Bassey said. “That just helps the team grow, and helps build connection with the team. Guys are just coming in ready to work every day, regardless if it’s optional — you got to show up. They’re always in the gym, they’re always in the practice facility, so they put in the work. Me coming in and seeing that, it’s fun.” Bassey observed that playing for Boston’s Summer League last July helped familiarize him with the teammates and coaching staff, which has allowed for a smoother transition than might otherwise have occurred.
And-Ones: All-Defense, G League Playoffs, Acuff, Fertitta
Yahoo Sports contributor Nekias Duncan lists his picks for the two All-Defensive teams (as of March 27). Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Rudy Gobert, Bam Adebayo and Derrick White comprise Duncan’s first team, while Cason Wallace, Stephon Castle, Dyson Daniels, Scottie Barnes and Marcus Smart are on the second.
Duncan also cites nine honorable mentions who didn’t quite make the cut, including Evan Mobley, last year’s Defensive Player of the Year. Duncan says Ausar Thompson would replace Smart if he qualifies; the third-year forward needs to play at least 20 minutes in seven of Detroit’s last eight games to be eligible (Smart may not qualify either due to the requirements of the 65-game rule).
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The 16-team field and schedule for the NBA G League playoffs has been set, the league announced in a press release. The Osceola Magic (26-10) are the top seed in the Eastern Conference, while the South Bay Lakers (26-10) are the No. 1 seed in the West. The NBAGL playoffs feature a single-elimination tournament until the finals, which is best-of-three. Osceola and the Stockton Kings (23-13, the third seed in the West) faced off in last year’s finals, with Stockton winning the title.
- Darius Acuff Jr. is widely projected to be a top-nine pick in the upcoming draft and one NBA general manager recently told Marc J. Spears of Andscape he thinks the Arkansas guard is the third-best prospect in the 2026 class, behind BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and UNC’s Caleb Wilson. Razorbacks head coach John Calipari, who has coached numerous future NBA stars in college, says teams would be foolish to pass over Acuff, a first-team All-American as a freshman. “Pass on him, you’ll regret it,” Calipari told Andscape. “I said it about Tyrese (Maxey). I’ve said it about a bunch of guys. I said it about Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander): ‘You’re going to regret passing on this kid.’ And I know there are other good players, but this kid (Acuff) is unique.”
- Rockets owner Tillman Fertitta and his family have reached an agreement to purchase the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun and relocate the team to Houston, confirms Alexa Philippou of ESPN. Chris Baldwin of PaperCity Magazine first reported the news. The plan is for the Sun to finish 2026 in Connecticut before relocating in 2027. The Fertitta family is spending $300MM to buy the team, which is expected to be called the Comets. The Houston Comets were a WNBA team from 1997-2008.
Celtics Notes: Tatum, White, Gonzalez, Brown, Harper
The Celtics were down two starters on Thursday at Oklahoma City, with Jayson Tatum (right Achilles injury management) and Derrick White (right knee contusion) both ruled out (Twitter links via the team).
Thursday will mark Tatum’s first absence since he made his season debut on March 6. He has averaged 19.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.0 steal in his first three contests (27.0 minutes per game). Head coach Joe Mazzulla said Tatum’s day off was part of his recovery plan, per Brian Robb of MassLive.
“Just trust in our sport science team and trainers,” Mazzulla said. “The goal was always for him to come back and also to maintain his health as he continues to stay healthy and continue to get better. Just the trust and communication from our team.”
Boston’s next game will be on Saturday vs. Washington.
Here’s more on the Celtics:
- In a story for The Athletic, John Hollinger examines Tatum’s first two games of the season. Hollinger didn’t notice anything awry with Tatum physically, and says with the team already playing at a very high level before he returned, the Celtics don’t need a peak version of the perennial All-NBA forward to make a deep playoff run.
- Hollinger has also been keeping tabs on Hugo Gonzalez, writing that the 20-year-old wing has played high-level defense as a rookie and is a strong rebounder for his size. According to Hollinger, Gonzalez plays with lots of energy and finishes well near the basket, especially in transition, but his jump shot and handle are shaky. The Celtics have had multiple developmental success stories the past two years, Hollinger adds, so Boston was an ideal landing spot for the Spanish small forward.
- On the Cousins podcast with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady (YouTube link), Jaylen Brown said he contemplated asking for a trade in 2019 after Boston was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs, but McGrady convinced him not to. “Coming and sitting down with Mac, we spent a couple days just working out and talking, having some food, and he’s telling me like, I’m thinking like one thing and he’s thinking like, ‘nah, you need to stay, it’s going to be you.’ He’s telling me all the stuff that all just manifested itself. So, I can’t even like, it’s crazy looking back on it now,” Brown said.
- In a mailbag, Robb of MassLive states that Ron Harper Jr. is “highly likely” to have his two-way contract converted to a standard deal. Robb expects Harper’s promotion to happen on the final day of the regular season (April 12) since he still has two-way eligibility left. Harper scored a career-high 22 points (on 8-of-11 shooting) in 33 minutes during Tuesday’s loss at San Antonio and has been solid defensively for the Celtics, Robb notes.
Celtics Notes: Tatum, Thompson, White, Vucevic
After making an emotional season debut Friday night in Boston where fans celebrated his return 10 months after Achilles surgery, Jayson Tatum was relieved to get back to a normal environment Sunday at Cleveland, writes Jay King of The Athletic. Tatum remained on a minutes restriction, but he scored 20 points as the Celtics posted an emphatic win in a battle of Eastern Conference contenders.
“The other day was such a big deal, and obviously, in a home game in the city of Boston, I had a lot of family in town,” Tatum said. “Today just kind of felt like getting back in the flow of things. And that felt good for me.”
Tatum scored 12 points in the first seven minutes to help Boston build an early lead. Although he missed seven of his nine three-point attempts, he sank a clutch one with about two minutes left to play to stave off a Cleveland comeback. King notes that the Celtics were already playing well without Tatum – holding the league’s best defensive rating and second-best net rating – and have won the two games since his return by an average of 15.5 points.
“I don’t think his game has gone anywhere,” Payton Pritchard said. “I’ve seen him working on it. I think it’s more now, after not playing in a while, you’ve just got to get your flow back. Like, one-on-one reads, stuff like that.”
There’s more on the Celtics:
- After Friday’s win over the Mavericks, Klay Thompson offered some advice to Tatum, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe states in a subscriber-only piece. Thompson has plenty of experience in overcoming major injuries after suffering an ACL tear during the 2019 Finals and a ruptured Achilles tendon the following year. “One of his messages was like, ‘Man, just give yourself some grace,’” Tatum said Sunday. “He said that he wished he would have given himself more grace. Obviously, being elite athletes and competitors that we are, we want it so bad. But I’m still on the road to recovery and this is just a phase of it.”
- Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson views Derrick White as a major reason that the Celtics were able to remain competitive during Tatum’s absence, per Brian Robb of MassLive. “Derrick White, he’s a top-five player in this league,” Atkinson said. “I know no one says that in the standard media, but analytically, you look at all the advanced stuff, he’s (a) top-five player in the league, superstar. Jaylen [Brown] is obviously having a great year. [Neemias] Queta is analytically one of the top 30, probably. They have a lot of talent even without Jayson. So I think if you just kind of look, ‘Oh my gosh, Jayson Tatum’s out, they’re going to be terrible,’ I never bought into that.”
- Speaking to reporters on Sunday, coach Joe Mazzulla shared his advice for Nikola Vucevic, who will be sidelined for about a month with a fractured finger, relays Souichi Terada of MassLive. “Just stay in shape,” Mazzulla said. “Do everything he can with whatever the limitations are. He does a great job in the film room studying. Just continuing to do what he’s been doing. He’s a professional.”
Wembanyama, White Named Defensive Players Of The Month
Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama has been named February’s Defensive Player of the Month for the Western Conference, while Celtics guard Derrick White has earned the honor for the Eastern Conference, according to the NBA (Twitter link).
Wembanyama, who is the betting favorite for this season’s Defensive Player of the Year award, led the NBA in blocks per game (3.5) in February, increasing his league-best mark to 2.9 BPG. According to the NBA, he also ranked second in the Western Conference in defensive rebounds per game (9.3) as the Spurs enjoyed a perfect month (11-0).
San Antonio’s league-best +15.1 net rating in February was buoyed by a defensive rating of 106.2, which was the second-best mark in the league and ranked first among Western Conference teams. That rating improved to 100.0 during Wembanyama’s 323 minutes and dipped to 111.1 when he wasn’t on the floor.
Wembanyama was also named the West’s Defensive Player of the Month in January, so he’s the first repeat winner in either conference so far this season.
The Celtics were the only team with an overall defensive rating (105.5) better than the Spurs’ mark in February, and White was a crucial part of that effort. Despite standing just 6’4″, the veteran guard averaged 1.7 blocks per game for the month, which ranked third in the East. He also contested 75 shots, the highest total among guards, per the NBA.
As was the case with Wembanyama in San Antonio, the Celtics posted a defensive rating of just 100.0 when White was on the court in February.
Wembanya’s teammate Stephon Castle was among the other nominees for Defensive Player of the Month in the Western Conference, along with Clippers guard Kris Dunn, Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr., and Thunder teammates Chet Holmgren and Cason Wallace (Twitter link).
Heat big man Bam Adebayo, Knicks forward OG Anunoby, Raptors forward Scottie Barnes, Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, and Pistons wing Ausar Thompson were nominated in the East.