NEW YORK – Jason Kidd is a good sport, one of the nicest, most thoughtful guys in the league.

Today, he is being recognized for it.

The Dallas Mavericks guard was announced as the recipient of the Joe Dumars Trophy presented to the 2011-12 NBA Sportsmanship Award winner.

Kidd (Southwest) was one of six divisional winners, which included Cleveland’s Antawn Jamison (Central), the Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Paul (Pacific), Miami’s Shane Battier (Southeast), Minnesota’s Luke Ridnour (Northwest), and New York’s Jeremy Lin (Atlantic).

Kidd received 93 first-place votes (2,501 total points) of a possible 334 from fellow NBA players.

The NBA will make a $10,000 donation on behalf of Kidd to The Jason Kidd Foundation, which is dedicated to improving education among the youth, by ensuring that kids of all ages have the tools needed through mentoring, tutoring and technology programs to succeed in life.

Eleven points were given for each first-place vote, nine points for each second-place vote, seven points for third, five points for fourth, three points for fifth and one point for each sixth-place vote.  Each team nominated one of its players for the award.

Former NBA players Greg Anthony, John Crotty, Antonio Davis, Eddie Johnson and Kenny Smith selected the six divisional winners from a pool of 30 team nominees.

The NBA will make a $5,000 donation to each of the divisional winner’s charities of choice: the Battier Take Charge Foundation on behalf of Battier; KaBOOM! on behalf of Jamison; the Jeremy Lin Foundation on behalf of Lin; the CP3 Foundation on behalf of Paul; and the Blaine (Wash.) Boys and Girls Club on behalf of Ridnour.

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 NBA Cares program efforts. The trophy is named for former Detroit Pistons guard and Hall of Famer Joe Dumars, the award’s first recipient.

Following is a list of this year’s voting totals for 2011-12 the NBA Sportsmanship Award. The balloting was tabulated by independent accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP.

2011-12 NBA SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD VOTING TOTALS

Player, Team                          1^st        2^nd        3^rd      4^th     5^th   6^th         Points
Jason Kidd, Dallas               93          74         69       44      31       16         2501

Shane Battier, Miami                69          67         77       46       40      22         2273

Antawn Jamison, Cleveland  35         69          57       67       59      37         1954

Luke Ridnour, Minnesota       58         38          53        75       51      41         1920

Jeremy Lin, New York             45         35          39        52       67      80        1624

Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers         34         45          29        32       65     115        1452
Following is the all-time list of winners:

ALL-TIME NBA SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD WINNERS
Inaugural:   Joe Dumars (1995-96)                  2003-04:        P.J. Brown, New Orleans

1996-97:         Terrell Brandon, Cleveland        2004-05:        Grant Hill, Orlando

1997-98:         Avery Johnson, San Antonio    2005-06:        Elton Brand, L.A. Clippers

1998-99:         Hersey Hawkins, Seattle              2006-07:        Luol Deng, Chicago

1999-00:        Eric Snow, Philadelphia               2007-08:        Grant Hill, Phoenix

2000-01:       David Robinson, San Antonio   2008-09:         Chauncey Billups, Denver

2001-02:         Steve Smith, San Antonio         2009-10:          Grant Hill, Phoenix

2002-03:        Ray Allen, Seattle                         2010-11:            Stephen Curry, Golden State

2011-12:           Jason Kidd, Dallas