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Michigan State Basketball: Tum Tum Nairn gives away Inspirational Player Award (Video)

By Connor Muldowney

Dec 29, 2015; Iowa City, IA, USA; Michigan State Spartans guard Lourawls Nairn Jr. (11) dribbles against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the first half at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 29, 2015; Iowa City, IA, USA; Michigan State Spartans guard Lourawls Nairn Jr. (11) dribbles against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the first half at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports /
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Michigan State basketball honored Tum Tum Nairn with the Inspiration Player Award for the 2016-17 season, but he felt others deserved it more.

With the 2016-17 Michigan State basketball regular season coming to an end, the Spartans held their annual awards banquet on Monday evening. Individual awards were presented and Miles Bridges came away with the team MVP while Tum Tum Nairn took home a special honor.

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To no one’s surprise, the Spartans presented Tum Tum with the Inspirational Player Award for the third consecutive season. The junior point guard is one of the best leaders Tom Izzo has ever coached and that goes far beyond what he can contribute on the court.

After receiving the award, Nairn was asked to give a short speech and he did so, but it had a twist. Nairn went off script a bit and called Eron Harris, Ben Carter and Gavin Schilling up to the stage with him with a smiling Tom Izzo sitting right behind the podium.

What Nairn did next exemplifies what kind of teammate he is and the impact he’s had on the program. Just watch:

While it’s not a huge award and the trio of Harris, Carter and Schilling likely gave it right back to him, the fact that he decided to give them the spotlight as the team’s most inspirational players instead of talk about himself is telling of how much he means to those guys.

Carter talked about how he’s felt at home even without having played a single game at Michigan State and Schilling spoke about how great of a teammate Nairn is. The best quote came from Harris, who was taken back by the gesture.

“That’s one of the realest things,” Harris said. “That’s not fake. That’s like really real. That’s the type of person Tum is.”

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Izzo, of course, was trying to hold his emotions back in the background. Great gesture by Tum Tum.

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