Payton Pritchard came from the bench and changed games to Boston Celtics this season.

He was the only player in the NBA with more than 1,000 points in games he didn’t start. He set the league record for 3-pointers made by a backup. And the voters noted all that and more, and chose the Celtics guard as the league’s sixth man of the year this season.

Pritchard angled Detroits Malik Beasley and Cleveland’s Ty Jerome for the award. It’s the fifth time a Celtics player won the award: Kevin Mchale claimed it in 1984 and 1985, Bill Walton in 1986 and Malcolm Brogdon won it in 2023.

And maybe appropriately, the price is named after another Celtics legend – John Havlicek.

“Payton is a baller – and his teammates know what they get every single day in terms of effort, care and commitment,” said Celtics president Brad Stevens in a statement released by the team. “For him to be honored with the award named after the great John Havlicek is a credit for everything he brings to the table for our team.”

It is the first of this season’s NBA prices that were announced where others are spread in the coming weeks. This year’s coupling player (Jalen Brunson of New York, Anthony Edwards from Minnesota or Nikola Jokic from Denver) will be announced on Wednesday night, and this year’s defensive player (Dyson Daniels from Atlanta, Draymond Green from Golden State or Evan Mobley from Cleveland) will be announced on Thursday night.

Prices are voted by a global panel of 100 authors and TV companies covering the league.

Pritchard led all reserves in points (1,079 in the games where he did not start), 3-Pointers (246, not including nine more, he made in his three games starting) along with plus-minus (+428). And among the nonstarters, his assist ranked a total of 257 third best in the league behind only Indiana’s TJ McConnell and Portlands Scoot Henderson.

Pritchard is a fan favorite in Boston for a number of reasons, including his energy and inclination-not to mention willing to shoot deep 3s at the ends of quarters and halves, even low percentage that could in theory harm his statistics. He also had one of the wildest triple-double (although technically not counting as one) in the NBA story on March 5, when he had 43 points, 10 rebounds and 10 3-pointers made, all this from the bench.

Celtics won a lot of games regardless; They were 61-21 this season. But when Pritchard was big, they were even harder to beat. Boston went 17-6 this season when Pritchard came from the bench and scored at least 20 points, 36-12 when he came from the bench and scored at least 10 points.

Reporting Associated Press.

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