Crawford wins NBA Sixth Man award
Last summer, Hawks general manager Rick Sund went to Seattle to make a sales pitch to Jamal Crawford. Tuesday, the NBA confirmed that Crawford made a pretty good purchase.
Crawford received the Sixth Man award, the first Hawk to win the honor in the award's 28 years. Coming off the bench for all of his 79 games, Crawford averaged 18.0 points, the second-highest average in 40 years for a player without a start. He has been an invaluable piece of the Hawks' first 50-win season since 1997-98.
Said Crawford, "It's a great, great honor."
He made good on the hopes that Sund and the Hawks had for him as a sixth man when they acquired him last June from Golden State for Speedy Claxton and Acie Law IV. In his previous six seasons, Crawford had started 80 percent of his games. After the trade, Sund visited Crawford at his Seattle home and told him that he could establish an identity in the league as a sixth man, much like Dallas' Jason Terry and San Antonio's Manu Ginobili.
"I said, ‘This could be the best thing that's ever happened to you in your career,'" Sund said.
Crawford, who until this season had never been to the playoffs in nine seasons, went along. The voting -- Crawford received 110 of the 122 first-place votes -- suggested he made the right choice. On Crawford's behalf, Kia donated a Sorento to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta.
Said Hawks coach Mike Woodson, "I couldn't be more proud of a young man than I am of Jamal Crawford."
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Neither Sund nor Woodson would directly address an anonymously sourced Yahoo report that Charlotte coach Larry Brown is seeking to become the Philadelphia 76ers' team president and hire Woodson, who is in the final year of his contract with the Hawks. Woodson previously coached for Brown in Philadelphia and Detroit.
Sund, calling himself a "Mike fan," said "things that need to be taken care of in the offseason will be taken care of in the offseason."
Woodson, who has made clear his displeasure over not having his contract extended going into his last year, said he wants to stay in Atlanta.
Said Woodson, "I want to see it through."
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In praising guard Mike Bibby, who made five of seven 3-pointers against Milwaukee on Monday, Woodson said "we've just got to get a few other guys as a unit being more solid." One might reasonably deduce that one of them is forward Marvin Williams, who contributed 23 points in the first two games but shot 3-for-12 in the two losses in Milwaukee, for 12 points.
Said Williams, "I was awful on the road. I did pretty well the first two games. On the road, I didn't get into a rhythm. ... I've got to look to be more aggressive, definitely, coming out in Game 5."
About the Author
Ken Sugiura is a sports columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Formerly the Georgia Tech beat reporter, Sugiura started at the AJC in 1998 and has covered a variety of beats, mostly within sports.
