J.J. Barea places sixth in 2019-20 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award voting

The Dallas Mavericks didn’t take home a lot of end-of-season awards this year. They did capture a few, however, and ranked highly in the voting for others. One such honor that a Mav didn’t win but placed in the top-10 in voting is the 2019-20 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award.

Veteran point guard J.J. Barea placed sixth in this year’s voting. He tallied 16 first-place votes, 31 second-place votes, 17 third-place votes, 13 fourth-place votes, and 26 fifth-place votes for a total of 527 points.

Jrue Holiday of the New Orleans Pelicans came in first with 1,041 points. Patty Mills of the San Antonio Spurs tied Barea’s point total and shares sixth-place with him.

According to the NBA, “the award recognizes 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.”

The award is named after named after Jack Twyman and Maurice Stokes. They played together on the Rochester/Cincinnati Royals from 1955 to 1958. Stokes’ career ended when he suffered a head injury from a fall during a game. He later became paralyzed due to brain injuries resulting from the fall. Twyman became Stokes’ legal guardian until Stokes died in 1970.

Dirk Nowitzki won the award for the 2016-17 season. He is the only Dallas Mavericks player to do so.