Will Russell Westbrook be the Sixth Man of the Year?
Russ is on the verge of a sixth man of the year campaign. And if he does win it, he’ll make history.
I was doing some research for an article the other day and noticed that the Los Angeles Lakers’ Russell Westbrook is leading the charge for the sixth man of the year award.
From a quick comparison of his stats vs his rivals’ stats, he seems to be the likely player to take home the newly named John Havlicek trophy.
In 45 games (3 starts), Westbrook is averaging 15.9 points, 7.6 assists, and 6.4 rebounds.
Some of the other players on the list average more points or rebounds or assists than him, but he has the most complete stat line, which gives him the odds of winning it.
But here’s the fascinating part -after pondering on that thought for a moment, I realized that if he does win it, he would have the MVP title and the sixth-man award under his belt.
“Has anyone in the NBA ever done that?” I thought to myself before doing some basic Googling.
Turns out, there was one other player in NBA history that won an MVP award and then a Sixth Man award.
In 1978, Bill Walton won the MVP title. Then nearly a decade later, in 1986, he was deemed the sixth man of the year.
Right now, some of you may be thinking about James Harden (which is kind of odd because I haven’t mentioned him at all). But in his case, he won the sixth man award (in 2012) before the MVP award (in 2018).
And that wasn’t what I was curious about, k?
However, if we’re just looking at players who have won both awards, then Walton and Harden are currently the only two players to have done it.
Anyway, hope these random facts, at the very least, entertained you. Because I know for a fact it didn’t add any other substance to your day.
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