Sixth Man of the Year Transcript
The Memphis Grizzlies held a press conference on Friday, April 28, to announce that Mike Miller had been named the NBA’s 2005-06 Sixth Man of the Year. Below is a transcript of the press conference:
President of Basketball Operations Jerry West:
“Somebody always asks what these individual awards mean, and most of them are appropriately named. The Sixth Man of the Year is a person who comes off the bench, plays his role, contributes at a very high level and goes about his job and not complains about it. We’re very privileged to have Mike here. His work ethic is second to none, in fact, I’ve never seen a player work harder in my life. And I think when we acquired him, the thing that maybe surprised me, I knew how hard of a worker he was, but I didn’t know to what extent. He’s improving every year, he’s got more room for improvement, he’s got more room to grow as a player and here’s a man that came into the league and was Rookie of the Year and now a few years later he’s the Sixth Man of the Year. That says a great deal about Mike’s dedication to the game and his dedication to doing what he needs to do and what the coaches need him to do to be successful. So Mike, congratulations.”
Head Coach Mike Fratello:
“To follow up on what Jerry had mentioned, what does the award mean to that person and what does it mean to others? Well, one thing it means is we have a person who was very willing when we sat down early in the season and our front office shuffled our roster a little bit and we came in with new people and we had to figure out how we could best perform on the floor as a team. I sat with Mike and I talked about what we wanted to do going into training camp, what my thoughts were about the lineup combinations. I asked him his thoughts and his feelings on the idea of perhaps coming off the bench and playing the role we asked him to play rather than start as he did the year before when he had such a terrific season. And it’s not a long conversation normally with Mike, it’s ‘Whatever’s best for the team is fine with me’, and not many people are that willing to give of themselves to help a team achieve success. He stepped right up and has handled it magnificently throughout the year and I think this is maybe the way of somebody upstairs saying that’s how it’s supposed to be handled, go about your job professionally and you’ll be rewarded for it in the end. When you look at names that are previous winners of this award, Bobby Jones, Kevin McHale, Bill Walton, our own Bobby Jackson, you realize the impact those people had on their respective teams, and that’s what Mike has done for this team. He’s a starter, we all know that, but he’s a starter with a different role on this team. I couldn’t be happier for him and his teammates I’m sure are excited for him, so congratulations Mike.”
West:
“ I think basketball, of all the team games that are played, when you see a good basketball team play, you see players that look like they are so coordinated, they think alike, they share the basketball, and I think sometimes Mike (Fratello) would like to see Mike (Miller) shoot the ball a little bit more, and I’m one of those people also. But again, I think it speaks volumes to the kind of person he is and he has taken his role and allowed our coaching staff to have a much more flexible team, so that when we go to the bench we know what we’re going to get. I think for any coach that is a really, really positive thing. Some people can’t accept being a player who’s going to play a lot of minutes, they have to be a starter, but this is a unique person. Again, we’re very proud as an organization, we had our first All-Star player here this year, our first Sixth Man of the Year, I think we made some progress, there’s more to be done here to make us better but if we can get more players like Mike that’s going to happen sooner than later.”
Mike Miller:
“ I just want to say thanks to the people who voted for me, thank these guys up here, Coach and Jerry for the progress I’ve been through since him bringing me here and helping me through the progress of becoming a better basketball player, and my teammates. I think this award just goes to show that we had a good year as a team. Most times, if you look at the list, all Sixth Men are part of winning teams, that all it’s about. So I just want to say thank you.”
Mike Miller, on the transition from being a starter to becoming a reserve:
“
The bottom line is that’s my job. When they signed me here it was to play basketball, not to worry about coming off the bench or starting.”
“It’s different, but it’s like anything else, you do it enough, it’s repetition, you do it enough and you get used to it. One thing about it I’ve always said about is I’m a little different from most Sixth Men. I get quite a few minutes, and when I come in there they run a lot of plays for me so I get into the flow of the game early.”
Mike Miller, on if his approach changes depending on how the game is going when he enters:
“
There’s different games. Our bench has been good, it’s not just me. You bring off Bobby Jackson, you bring off Ren, we have a pretty solid bench so you just go in there and understand sometimes you need to bring a little more energy, sometimes you need to bring the energy to the building as our bench did a lot this year. It’s just coming in there and making an impact and when you leave the game make sure you put your print on the game.”