Earlier in the season, Sonics coach Nate McMillan entertained the possibility of having three players – forwards Vlade Radmanovic and Danny Fortson, and guard Antonio Daniels – as the top finishers for the Sixth Man of the Year award.
On Tuesday, when the votes were announced, the Sonics did not have any of the top three positions. In balloting by sports writers and broadcasters from the United States and Canada, Chicago’s Ben Gordon won with 513 out of a possible 625 points (125 voters; five votes for first, three for second, one for third). Second place went to Boston’s Ricky Davis (257) and third place to Denver’s Earl Boykins (155).
Radmanovic finished fifth with 41 points, including two first-place votes. Daniels was eighth with 10 points, while Fortson did not receive any points.
Radmanovic missed the last 19 games of the regular season with a stress fracture in his lower right leg, and that injury definitely hurt his chances, McMillan said.
“If Vlade didn’t miss the last month of the season, I think he’d have had a legitimate shot at being Sixth Man of the Year,” he said. “I don’t know of a better one (in the NBA), but his injury probably took him out of the running.”
Radmanovic, meanwhile, was indifferent to the outcome.
“I was never worried about whether I’m going to win the Sixth Man of the Year or not,” he said. “The only thing I’m concerned about is how I’m going to play and how much I’m going to help my team, during the season and especially now in the playoffs.
“Even when I was playing, I was never playing to get the Sixth Man award. I was just playing basketball. If you get it, you get it. And if not, I guess there is somebody who is doing that job a little better than you.”
It has never been a secret, of course, that Radmanovic does not want to be a Sixth Man candidate. He would prefer to be a starter.
“I guess not only me,” he said. “If you ask anybody in this league if he’d like to start, he’ll give you the same answer. I’m the same way. But I’ve been bothered by it before. Now I’m just doing what the coaches want from me.”
Hair today, longer tomorrow: Radmanovic, who began the playoffs with braided hair, ditched the green and gold rubber bands during the team’s trip to Sacramento last weekend. He now ties a black shoelace around his head to keep his longish locks from dangling into his eyes.
Evidently, an inconspicuous shoelace does not violate McMillan’s team-wide ban on headbands.
Radmanovic said he cut his hair very short before the season and it has gone uncut since. His last haircut, he said, was “sometime in September.”
Why the Sampson routine?
“I’m superstitious about it,” he said. “I’ve been doing the same thing since I came here. I’m a creature of habit.”
The braids, meanwhile, “were good to play with, but you can’t wash your hair and I’m not used to that. My head was itching. I wanted to scratch my scalp off, so I just decided to take off my braids.”
Expensive words: Before the game, McMillan was questioned about the $100,000 fine levied against Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy on Monday for remarks about officials and their alleged bias against Rockets center Yao Ming.
McMillan deftly refused to answer questions about Van Gundy’s statements, but did express astonishment at the size of the fine.
“That’s the biggest fine I’ve ever heard about without (the offender) being suspended,” he said. “Normally you’re losing that amount of money due to a suspension.”
If he ever incurred such a hefty fine, what would Mrs. McMillan say?
“A lot of things,” he replied with a smile. “And not only Mrs. McMillan, but other family members. I’d get a lot of people calling about that.”
The Sonics, he added, have strategies to keep him from saying the wrong thing to the media in his postgame comments. Ordinarily a member of the team’s PR staff will escort McMillan to the interview area, and if he is still riled by something from the game, including the officiating, he is urged to take a few deep breaths.
“All (NBA coaches) are aware of what we can say to the press,” he said. “Sometimes you (say something emotional), but one thing I’ve tried to do is calm down before I go to the podium. Calm down before I address the team. Because a lot of time what you think you saw is not what you really saw.”
Rich Myhre, Herald writer
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