Chauncey Billups Named NBA Teammate of the Year

Clippers guard Chauncey Billups is the inaugural winner of the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award, according to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports:

Brad Turner of the LA Times confirmed the report.

Billups was also presented with his trophy by Commissioner David Stern during a press conference before Game 2, as the NBA's official Twitter account highlights:

This accolade recognizes both the on-court achievements and off-court leadership of players around the league.  

According to Steve Aschburner of NBA.com, 12 active players were finalists for the award. The list of recognizable stars can be found below, and every person on it should be known as much for his humanitarian efforts as his basketball prowess.

Finalist	Team
Jerry Stackhouse	Brooklyn Nets
Luke Walton	Cleveland Cavaliers
Andre Iguodala	Denver Nuggets
Jarrett Jack	Golden State Warriors
Roy Hibbert	Indiana Pacers
Chauncey Billups	Los Angeles Clippers
Shane Battier	Miami Heat
Roger Mason Jr.	New Orleans Hornets
Jason Kidd	New York Knicks
Serge Ibaka	Oklahoma City Thunder
Manu Ginobili	San Antonio Spurs
Emeka Okafor	Washington Wizards

The award is jointly named for Jack Twyman and Maurice Stokes, two Pittsburgh natives who landed on the Cincinnati Royals in 1955, according to Sporting News.

As teammates, they had a short but successful tenure with the organization—which would eventually become the Sacramento Kings—that ran through the 1957-58 campaign.

In a late-season showdown against Minneapolis, Stokes suffered a head injury later diagnosed as post-traumatic encephalopathy, which left him permanently paralyzed.

In the years following the devastating injury, Twyman took over as Stokes’ legal guardian when his family wasn’t able to provide the financial support and care he needed to survive.

The veteran forward raised money via charitable events and helped win a workers-injury compensation case to acquire the funds required to aid his friend and former teammate.

The winner of the award was decided by a vote among peers, as a panel of NBA legends narrowed down the list to six representatives from each conference.

According to Aschburner, players were not allowed to vote for their own teammates, and a weighted point scale was used with first place being worth 10 points, second worth seven, third worth four, fourth worth three and fifth worth one.

Both Hall of Fame players are currently deceased—Stokes passed away in 1970 and Twyman in 2012—but this posthumous recognition is something their families should be proud of, the finalists should be honored to be in the running for and the recipient proud to display.