NBPA Players Voice Awards: Dwight Howard wins Atlanta’s 2017 Teammate of the Year honor

On Friday, the National Basketball Players Association released their winners for 2016-2017 Teammate of the Year for each team, and center Dwight Howard won the award for the Atlanta Hawks.

Howard, who was seemingly viewed as such a negative that he was shipped out of town for Miles Plumlee’s abhorrent contract, is a curious choice. It’s no secret that Howard has clashed with teammates in his past stops in Orlando, Los Angeles, and Houston, and rumblings were that this past year was no different in Atlanta.

When the veteran big man didn’t get his post touches, Howard’s effort was sometimes noticeably lacking on the defensive end, which doesn’t exactly scream “Teammate of the Year”. Given that the Hawks also employed Paul Millsap for the entirety of last season, one has to be skeptical of how seriously the players took this particular vote. To be at least somewhat fair to Howard, there were also indications that he got along well with the young guys on the team, particularly rookie Taurean Prince.

Full winners for the Eastern Conference are listed above, and full winners for the Western Conference are here:

Recipients for all major awards can be found on the NBPA’s official site.