Keldon Johnson just cemented his place in the Spurs’ history books

Keldon Johnson just officially received the honor Spurs fans already knew he was destined to get. The NBA announced that Johnson won the 2025-26 NBA Sixth Man of the Year award, which is so well deserved considering how valuable he was to San Antonio this season.

Johnson beat out Jaime Jaquez Jr. of the Miami Heat and Tim Hardaway Jr. of the Denver Nuggets to win the award, earning 63 out of 100 possible first place votes. This is the first accolade of The Mustang’s NBA career.

No bench player in the NBA was more valuable than Keldon Johnson this season

In 82 games played this year, Keldon averaged 13.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists while shooting 51.9% from the field and 36.3% from three. He finished second in the league in total bench points, trailing only Jaquez in that category.

Those are solid counting stats for the 2019 first round pick, but they don’t even begin to encapsulate his true importance to the Spurs. He’s an emotional and spiritual leader for this team, an energetic veteran presence who keeps morale high and leads by example.

The best bench players in basketball are guys who sacrifice and do whatever it takes to get their club wins. Johnson embodies that. Three years ago, he was a full-time starter averaging 22.0 points per game. He’s talked about how getting asked to move to a backup role was tough for him. But, he embraced that transition, and he’s now more than comfortable in his sixth man job.

Johnson’s attitude and resilience throughout his career have been admirable. He’s the ultimate Spur, and he has the hardware to prove it now.

Johnson now enters rare air in San Antonio history

Keldon joins Manu Ginobili as the only Spurs to win Sixth Man of the Year. That’s fitting, considering the legendary Ginobili is another guy who had the talent to be a full-time starter (understatement) but instead accepted a bench role for the betterment of the team.

Johnson also set the record for most bench points in a single season in San Antonio history, passing Ginobili, who set the previous record in his 6MOY campaign.

While Keldon Johnson isn’t a star, he’s still a Spurs legend, and he cemented that status this season. His new hardware is just the cherry on top. Congrats, Keldon!

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