Toronto Raptors' Lou Williams named KIA NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award

Toronto Raptors guard Lou Williams

Toronto Raptors back up guard Lou Williams was named KIA NBA Sixth Man of the Year, the NBA announced today. Averaging a career high 15.5 points, he helped the Raptors register a franchise record 49 wins and clinch the Atlantic Division for the second season in a row. He became the player in Raptors franchise history to win this award.

The 6 foot one inches guard received 78 first place votes totalling 502 points en route to being handed the award. Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas finished second with 324 points (33 first place votes) while Los Angeles Clippers’ Jamal Crawford finished third with 131 (8 first place votes).

The voting was done among a crowd of 130 sportswriters and broadcasters across the United States and Canada. Each player received 5 points for a first place votes, three points for a second place vote and finally one point for a third place vote. Williams started off the bench in all the 80 regular season games that he played thus fulfilling the much needed criteria for the award: the player must play more games off the bench than as a starter.

Williams is currently preparing for Game 2 of the Raptors’ first round series with the Washington Wizards. Toronto currently trails Washington 0-1, Game 2 will be played Wednesday night.