Report: Jamal Crawford wins Sixth-Man of the Year award

Jamal Crawford has won the NBA’s Sixth-Man of the Year Award, according to a report Wednesday on ESPN.com. The website cited “sources” and also stated that Crawford would have been given the award Tuesday at Game 5 of the Clippers’ Western Conference playoff series against Golden State at Staples Center, but that the NBA held back because of everything going on with now-banned team owner Donald Sterling.

Crawford averaged 18.6 points during the regular season. He becomes the fourth player in history to win the award twice, having previously won it in 2010. The other three players to win it two times were Detlef Schrempf, Ricky Pierce and Kevin McHale.

Clippers coach Doc Rivers was not surprised to hear the news during a conference call Wednesday.

“He’s deserving of it,” Rivers said. “I don’t know if there is a more lethal weapon in the league that you could bring off the bench and the fact that he’s done more than that, to me, is why he’s won it because he’s done this in the past over the last couple of of years where he’s been so good offensively.

“But I actually think he won it because I think the voters saw him doing other things for the team, playing defense, running the team at the point guard position, especially when Chris Paul was out at times, and he’s just been the perfect utility player for our team. He’s been awesome.”