The Basketball Palace: Breaking News: JR Smith named Sixth Man of the Year

JR Smith was named Sixth Man of the Year, the NBA announced in a press release. Smith is the first Knick to win the award since 1996-97, when John Starks won the award. Smith also becomes the third player in Knicks history to win the award, joining Starks and Anthony Mason who won this award in 1994-95.

This season Smith changed for the better and became more of an all-around player. His improvement in shot selection also was key in his success this season.

Here’s more about Smith’s accomplishments, via the NBA PR:

Smith received 484 of a possible 1,084 points, including 72 first-place votes, from a panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Jamal Crawford of the Los Angeles Clippers finished second with 352 points (31 first-place votes). Jarrett Jack of the Golden State Warriors finished third with 170 points (14 first-place votes).

In order to be eligible for this award, players had to have come off the bench in more games than they started. Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote.

Smith, who led reserves in 30-point (seven) and 20-point games (29), became the first player with four 30-point games off bench in same month (March) since Ricky Pierce had four in November of 1990. He earned Player of the Week honors for games played March 25-31, leading the Knicks to a 4-0 record with averages of 29.8 points (second in the league), 7.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals. In Smith’s 80 games, the Knicks enjoyed a +5.3 score differential with him on the court compared with +1.9 when he was on the bench.

As part of its support of the Sixth Man Award, Kia Motors America (KMA) will donate a new 2014 Kia Sorento LX CUV to the J.R. Smith Youth Foundation, which provides opportunities and support for young people through education, sports, the Arts and other beneficial activities through scholarships, grants and programs designed to further those goals. Kia Motors will present a Sorento to the charity of choice of each of five 2012-13 season-end award winners as part of “The Kia NBA Performance Awards.” Following this season, Kia Motors will have donated a total of 26 new vehicles to charitable organizations since its support of the NBA’s prestigious season-end honors began in 2008.