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    Lou Williams, JR Smith helped me adjust to sixth-man role: Clarkson

    JC says Manu Ginobili made sixth man role 'cool for me'
    May 25, 2021
    PHOTO: AP

    FOR Jordan Clarkson, his NBA Sixth Man of the Year award in this 2020-21 season is his homage to those who won this honor before, a few of them former teammates.

    "I pay this for all the guys who have won this award before me, especially Lou Williams and JR Smith. Two of them were my teammates before, so learning from them and going through the process of accepting this role put me in this place, so I really want to thank them," the Fil-Am guard said.

    Clarkson feels lucky to have picked the brain of Williams in their time together with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2015 to 2017 as he credited the three-time Sixth Man of the Year winner for helping him adjust to his role off the bench.

    "He really talked to me a lot while I was there as a young kid, going through that transition of moving through the bench and stuff like that," he said.

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      It truly was quite an adjustment for the Fil-Am guard, who was used to starting in his first two seasons with the Lakers before he was shifted to a role as a sparkplug off the bench once Luke Walton took over in the 2016-17 season.

      "The process of me kind of accepting that role, it was hard definitely. I think I was maybe 23 when Luke Walton got the job and he told me that I was gonna come off the bench. And I kind of took it like, 'Man, he don't think I'm good enough. So he's gonna play me off the bench and I got to prove him wrong. I got to get back in the starting lineup and everything.'

      "But talking to those guys and talking to my teammates, I was kind of hardheaded and like, 'Man, yeah whatever. I'm not listening to you at first.' And it was definitely a process," he shared.

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      "And you know what, I just said, 'No, this is what I'm gonna be. I'm just gonna come in here, I'm gonna impact the game with the minutes that has given to me, playing my role, and do it well.' It was a process."

      Those learnings continued when Clarkson was sent to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018 where he got together with another former Sixth Man of the Year awardee in JR Smith.

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      "Even when I got traded to Cleveland, I needed to learn how to really impact the game in terms of numbers-wise, the shots I'm taking, stuff like that," he said.

      "That was like a wake-up call as well because I didn't play well in the finals with LeBron [James] during that whole playoff series, I was kind of out of there mentally. But then, I sat down again and scraped it and went to the drawing board and said that's how we're gonna do it. It's all been a process, but I've really accepted it."

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      The 28-year-old Clarkson only started once in 68 regular season games for the Jazz and posted a career-high 18.4 points on 35-percent shooting from deep, to go with his 4.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 26.7 minutes.

      Clarkson said his education was not limited to Williams and Smith, noting that other former winners like Manu Ginobili and Jamal Crawford influenced his growth to become the player that he is now.

      "Growing up watching Manu, he's one guy that really made this role cool to me. Wanting to be like Manu, taking his moves and stuff like that, I feel like that was a big part for me. And even just having conversations with Jamal. They all kind of passed things down to me," he said.

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        Humbled as Clarkson was to accept the award, he knows that Utah still has something bigger in mind.

        "It's definitely an amazing achievement and something that I'm going to embrace today," he said. "But I know we got bigger things ahead and I want to get something else done and bring a gold ball home for sure."

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        PHOTO: AP
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