Detroit’s Antonio McDyess, Houston’s Shane Battier, Phoenix’s Grant Hill, Portland’s Brandon Roy, Toronto’s Chris Bosh and Washington’s Antawn Jamison have been selected by a five-member panel of former players as divisional winners for the 2007-08 NBA Sportsmanship Award.
The NBA Sportsmanship Award, designed to honor a player who best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court, is voted on by NBA players. The winner will be announced after the regular season.
The 2007-08 NBA Sportsmanship Award winner will be presented with the Joe Dumars Trophy, named after the Hall of Famer and former Detroit Pistons great who played 14 seasons in the NBA and was the recipient of the inaugural NBA Sportsmanship Award in 1996. The six-time All-Star was selected in honor of his distinguished and dignified career and for symbolizing the tradition the NBA wants to recognize with this award.
Former NBA players Mike Bantom, former Sun Eddie Johnson, Tom “Satch” Sanders, Kenny Smith and Steve Smith, the 2000-2001 Sportsmanship Award recipient, selected the six divisional winners from a pool of 30 team nominees. Each team nominated one of its own players for this award.
The annual award reflects the ideals of sportsmanship — ethical behavior, fair play and integrity — in amateur and professional basketball, a key focus of the league’s Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA grassroots youth basketball program.
Following is a list of the all-time winners of the NBA Sportsmanship award:
ALL-TIME NBA SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD WINNERS
Inaugural: Joe Dumars (1996) 1996-1997: Terrell Brandon, Cleveland
1997-1998: Avery Johnson, San Antonio
1998-1999: Hersey Hawkins, Seattle
1999-2000: Eric Snow, Philadelphia
2000-2001: David Robinson, San Antonio
2001-2002: Steve Smith, San Antonio
2002-2003: Ray Allen, Seattle
2003-2004: P.J. Brown, New Orleans
2004-2005: Grant Hill, Orlando
2005-2006: Elton Brand, Los Angeles Clippers
2006-2007: Luol Deng, Chicago
His grandfather Malcolm McDonald was a longtime resident of New Orleans and a smart businessman who provided money and backbone to Dillard University, a historically black college that moved its campus to a temporary location on Poydras Street following Hurricane Katrina.
Ask anyone around Grant Hill — coaches, trainers, even Suns general manager Steve Kerr — and they look at the sunny side of last Wednesday’s appendectomy, which will keep him out of action for at least two weeks.
They were Phoenix’s two significant offseason veteran acquisitions — the two biggest reasons why the Suns felt like they were a better team than the one that walked off the floor in San Antonio last May feeling close, yet still short, of a title run.
Creating a significant amount of buzz when he entered the league, Grant Hill was chosen as the third overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. The former Blue Devil shared the NBA Rookie of the Year Award with point guard Jason Kidd and made history as the first rookie to amass the most votes in the NBA All-Star balloting. 