<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Two factors probably doomed Celtics swingman Ricky Davis' candidacy for the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award: an unfortunate, but not undeserved, reputation and an uninformed electorate that did not understand the old rep no longer applied. Many around the league believed Davis, who this season has morphed from an occasionally selfish star into a genuine team player, should win the award as the top bench player. But when the voting by a panel of writers and broadcasters was announced yesterday, it wasn't even close. Davis finished a distant second to Chicago rookie Ben Gordon, who had 513 of a possible 625 votes, including 88-of-125 first-place votes. Davis received 17 first-place votes. Davis took the news in stride, saying shortly before last night's 90-85 loss to the Pacers in Game 5, ``It's not a big deal. It don't matter, man. I'm just trying to win these games here. It's no big deal.'' If Davis bid to shrug it off, his coach and teammates were more critical of the voting. ``He was scre. . . no. . .I don't know,'' said coach Doc Rivers, holding his tongue on his initial comment. ``I thought he deserved it, but what the hell.'' Rivers was careful to praise Gordon as a terrific player, a guy who, like Davis, is crucial to his team's success. But the coach found it hard to ignore the hard logic of the stat sheet. ``He led Gordon in scoring, in rebounding, in field goal percentage, he's a better defender, he had more assists,'' said Rivers. ``So, I don't know what other qualifications you need to win the award.'' This was not mere hyperbole by the good Doc. Davis did indeed best the Bulls guard from UConn in scoring (16.0 ppg to 15.1), rebounds, assists and shooting percentage - and by a comfortable margin in each case. ``What made the difference?'' asked Rivers. ``(Gordon) being a rookie, he was kind of a sexy pick. And I think a lot of people don't know Ricky Davis. They know about the past. And (there are) people who don't watch and who vote - and to be honest, there are West Coast guys who vote and they don't get a chance to see Ricky . . . We haven't exactly been on national TV a whole bunch. I think that hurt Ricky, and it's too bad.'' </div> Source
but I understand that Ricky had better in every stat category but he also played a little more than 8 more minutes per night. With that 8 minute diference he only had .9 ppg more, .4 rpg more, 1 apg more.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting JWohl:</div><div class="quote_post">I understand that Ricky had better in every stat category but he also played a little more than 8 more minutes per night. With that 8 minute diference he only had .9 ppg more, .4 rpg more, 1 apg more.</div>Ben Gordon did however manage to take more shots than Ricky in those limited minutes. In fact, he was 4th in the entire league in FGA/48 minutes. Not Ricky's fault his team likes to spread it around more.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting JWohl:</div><div class="quote_post">I understand that Ricky had better in every stat category but he also played a little more than 8 more minutes per night. With that 8 minute diference he only had .9 ppg more, .4 rpg more, 1 apg more.</div> And let's not forget that the article really said it all. We had a panel of SPORTSWRITERS choosing the award. And there's no question that, with the way the league has been hyping the Baby Bulls all year, that this was an inevitable pick. The combination of the league hype, the potential for positive press for a guy that yet still has a reputation to build, and the fact that writers just don't like Ricky really made this an easy choice. And I don't care about minutes here, you look at Gordon's line, and it's easy to see that this man has one thing on his mind, just like he did in college, and that's to see to it that he gets his points. We've seen Ricky evolve and shape himself into a player that is valuable to his team, and valuable to the league (little do they realize) and deserves recognition for the fabulous work he's done on a young and learning team. To make this young team good now, he has to play close to perfect off the bench to make the second unit gel, and he has done just that. More power to him. Mind you, this is not to take away from Ben Gordon, the man was a solid gold pick and has made his mark in the league as one the most dangerous fourth quarter assassins in the league. With his ability and with a little experience, he will make this team formidable late in games for a long time to come. Any man that comes off the bench in games and plays every late, crunch-time minute and makes as much of a difference as he does deserves recognition, and you can rest assured he will continue to receive it. And don't forget, he's doing all of this as a rookie.
Yeah, Gordon had a great year. He didn't deserve the award though. For all the reasons you list, he was the more 'attractive' pick. I can't blame the writers for giving him the award, but I can blame them for giving it to him by such a large margin. It just proves everything I've been trying to say about his reputation getting in the way. People try to dismiss the opinions of C's fans, but we do see him game in and game out. He also came to a no-BS town swimming in BS. He had that same rep when he came here, and I think it's fair to say that Boston fans are the toughest(along with NY & Philly) fans to win over. He won us over, though. I guess that's the first step. The next one is winning over the whole league. It won't be easy, but hopefully we'll get some more national games and more positive press so he can be recognized for the player he is. But that's assuming that he's still a bench player next year.
Everyone loves Ben Gordon, it's a well known fact. He is good with the media, and is clutch, which makes him a coach's dream. Also sportswriters are known to call ricky Davis a ballhog, and not a team player. It wasn't until mid-season that he really changed his ways, which didn't give enough time for them to warm up to him. Next year maybe, if he's not starting.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting S.Livingston14:</div><div class="quote_post"> It wasn't until mid-season that he really changed his ways, which didn't give enough time for them to warm up to him. Next year maybe, if he's not starting.</div>Sorry to say this, but you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. If anything, it was Gordon who didn't turn it on until midseason. At the All Star break, Ricky had the best numbers of any sixth man. You're just a classic example of somebody outside of the situation being fed misinformation. I thank you for posting in here because it does a great job of proving the typical NBA fan's overall ignorance to Ricky Davis.
Do not tell me Gordon didn't deserve this award . Ben Gordon came to a team that won 23 games the previous year, and helped transform the team with the 2nd worst record in the league to one with the 3rd best record in the east. Many games he won singlehandedly on game winning jumpers and shots leading up to it. He brought his scoring and with his presence alone he made everyone around him better. Yeah, Ricky Davis scored more, got more rebounds, and got more assists. He also played 8 more minutes a game than him. And of course he's going to rebound more, he's got 3-4 inches on Gordon. Yes, he shot a better percentage from FG, but Gordon shot much better from 3. Of course his shot percentage is gonna be lower. We rely on him to do a lot of the scoring. You remove each of them from their respective team, and Boston is still probably the 3rd seed (or at least in position to get it). Chicago would probably be one of the playoff cellar-dwellars and get sweeped by Miami in the first round. Yeah, it's an improvement from last year, but hell, almost anything would have been an improvement. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Sorry to say this, but you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. If anything, it was Gordon who didn't turn it on until midseason.</div> His first good game was the second game of the season. He became more consistent about 8 games into the season. 8 games = Midseason? Hmm...Might need to rethink that one. While I agree with you that the margin between them may have been to large, I still think that he's the undisputed 6th man of the year. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">In fact, he was 4th in the entire league in FGA/48 minutes.</div> Is that a bad thing? Per 48 minutes he also averages roughly 30 points contest. When a guy averages 1 or less of everything more than a kid who comes into the league and turns a team around and more than doubles the team's win total, that this guy, who i also need to mention plays 8 more minutes, deserves the award? I think not.
Already had this argument here, Ed. Gordon already won the award, so I really don't care anymore. I didn't mean to say Ben didn't deserve to win, he just didn't deserve to win by such a wide margin.
I agree with Thrilla. Saying this: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It wasn't until mid-season that he really changed his ways, which didn't give enough time for them to warm up to him</div> is an assinine and uniformed opinion. If you meant mid-season the year before this one, I'll give you that, otherwise, you're talking out your bunghole. Gordon had more than enough reasons to win this award, but dressing down RD with bogus information won't cut it in this forum.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting S.Livingston14:</div><div class="quote_post">Everyone loves Ben Gordon, it's a well known fact. He is good with the media, and is clutch, which makes him a coach's dream. Also sportswriters are known to call ricky Davis a ballhog, and not a team player. It wasn't until mid-season that he really changed his ways, which didn't give enough time for them to warm up to him. Next year maybe, if he's not starting.</div> I wouldn't consider Davis to be a ballhog, hes constantly trying to get his team mates involved, and at some points passes a little too much. There is no doubt in my mind that the reason Davis was robbed of the sixth man honors was because, of his past. The media is constantly struggling to find something negative to say about Ricky, and they can only come up with what happened in the past, FORGET ABOUT IT!He was well deserving of the award.
