Malik Monk, formerly of the Los Angeles Lakers and currently playing for the Sacramento Kings, seemed poised to win his first individual award in his career. However, in a closely contested vote, big man Naz Reid of the Minnesota Timberwolves emerged as the recipient of the NBA’s 2024 Sixth Man of the Year award, which honors the best player coming off the bench. Malik Monk and Naz Reid received the same number of third-place votes (10 votes) and second-place votes (39 votes). Ultimately, Reid secured the award with 45 first-place votes, narrowly defeating Malik Monk’s 43 votes, officially becoming the Sixth Man of the Year.

According to information from the NBA, this is the closest result in the history of the league under the current voting format (applied since the 2002-03 season). Naz Reid averaged 13.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game for the Minnesota Timberwolves, making significant contributions that helped the “Wolf Pack” achieve the second-best win-loss record in the franchise’s history (56-26).

Reid played a total of 81 games in the regular season, including 67 games coming off the bench and 14 starts when filling in for injured teammates. On the other hand, Malik Monk played 100% of his games as a reserve, averaging 15.4 points, 5.1 assists, and 2.9 rebounds for the Sacramento Kings.

Unfortunately for Malik, he missed the final three weeks of the regular season due to injury, which prevented him from enhancing his “resume” and hindered his ability to help the Kings reach the playoffs. Naz Reid becomes the third player in NBA history to win the Sixth Man of the Year award despite not being selected in the NBA Draft. Furthermore, he is the sixth player to win the award before turning 25 years old.

For the Minnesota Timberwolves, this is the third player in the franchise’s history to win this award. The previous recipients were John Starks in 1997 and Darrell Armstrong in 1999.

“Being mentioned alongside such outstanding bench players, I feel grateful and incredibly proud,” shared Naz Reid with TNT after being announced as the Sixth Man of the Year. In addition to Naz Reid and Malik Monk, the third-place finisher in the voting was forward Bobby Portis of the Milwaukee Bucks. Following him were shooting guard Norman Powell of the LA Clippers and sharpshooter Bogdan Bogdanovic from the Atlanta Hawks.

The Sixth Man of the Year is the second individual award announced by the NBA this week. Yesterday (April 24th), All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers was awarded the Most Improved Player.