LOS ANGELES — Jamal Crawford of the Los Angeles Clippers won the NBA Sixth Man Award on Thursday, becoming the oldest recipient and the first to do so with different teams.
The 34-year-old guard also was honored as the league’s best player off the bench while with the Atlanta Hawks in 2009-10.
Crawford led the league’s reserve players in scoring this season, averaging 18.6 points. He came off the bench in 45 of 69 games he played in, helping the Clippers to a 57-25 record, their best regular-season mark in franchise history.
The Clippers had a 31-14 record when Crawford came off the bench this season. The Clippers and Oklahoma City are tied 1-1 in their Western Conference semifinal.
“I actually think he won it because I think voters saw him doing other things for the team — playing defense, running the team at the point guard position when Chris Paul was out at times,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said last week, when The Associated Press first reported that Crawford had won. “He’s been the perfect utility player for a team. He’s been awesome.”
Crawford set the single-season franchise record for 3-pointers made with 161. That surpassed his record from last season, his first in Los Angeles, when he was runner-up for the Sixth Man award.