Didn't Twyman just die? Did Stern wait to create this because he hates Twyman? How cruel, to name this only when it became too late to reward him with some recognition at last.
What a joke of an award, on multiple levels... Don't we already have an NBA Sportsmanship award (which is a joke in and of itself)? They base it on NBA players vote, but they gave them the ballot? All of the candidates on the lists are too "media friendly" anyway. I'm positive the players would have picked differently. Just an all around bogus award that means nothing...
The trophy depicts a player helping up his opponent. College coaches teach this, then some NBA coaches get mad if their players do it. This is typical Stern. No discussion in advance, like the plastic ball or the uniforms. His decisions surprise us, like a dictator. There should have been advance debate about the league's lack of sportsmanship, if he's trying to change the culture.
The trophy essentially depicts what happened during an elimination game in the Western Conference Finals game from this season - [video=youtube;mjTkFFDe4pk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjTkFFDe4pk[/video] Where was Marc Gasol in the Sportsmanship or "Teammate" consideration?
Disgusting. Twyman, living only middle class, supports a paralyzed black man for 10-15 years, lives his unrewarded life in anonymity, dies, and THEN Stern gives him annual recognition by naming the award? A voice from the grave whispers, "Where were you when I needed you?"
Chauncey Billups was in the league about 27 years and had never heard of the Twyman-Stokes story. A few months after Twyman died in anonimity, Stern awakened to his own ignominy. http://www.freep.com/article/201306...illups-pistons-teammate-year?odyssey=obinsite
I was so intent upon getting anonymity and its near-rhyme ignominy into the same sentence, that I misspelled the former. Oh well, Shakespeare would still be proud.
