Lou Williams (Photo : Reuters / Tom Szczerbowski - USA Today Sports (Mandatory Credit))
Lou Williams of the Toronto Raptors was emotional after he found out that he was going to receive the NBA’s highly coveted 6th Man Award. Despite the troubles that he has had for the past few years, being selected for this special award is something that Williams is taking very seriously.
Williams’s time to get the award has come two years after he blew out his knee, over a year of struggles in successfully breaking the rotation for his team, and around 10 months after he got traded for what Washington Post has referred to as “pocket lint.”
“It is an eye opener that anything is possible – if you stay faithful to the grind, stay faithful to everything that puts you in position to be successful,” he said. “Starting has never been a big deal to me. A lot of guys want to start because of the attention. I have always been a team guy. I have always wanted to win.”
Williams became the first basketball player in franchise history to get the 6th Man Award, as well as the first Toronto Raptors player to get an individual award since Vince Carter was selected for the Rookie of the Year Award in 1999.
Williams got 78 out of 130 possible first place votes, winning over Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics, who only got 33 first place votes, as reported by ESPN.
Despite the basketball skills that Williams has displayed over the years, with some pretty ridiculous scoring bursts, Williams has managed to maintain a very likeable demeanor. Even internationally famous rapper Drake had praised and commended him in one of his tracks, entitled, “6 Man.”
“I did not think I was going to be the same player,” Williams said, referring to his 2013 injury. “I knew I was not going to have the foot speed I once had. I knew I was not going to be able to jump as high. But, it taught me to be smart and I worked on different parts of my game.”
