Before Jordan Clarkson began his offseason workouts, Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson gave him a goal.
Be so good off the bench that you win the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award. To Clarkson, that challenge was bigger than himself.
“See, the big thing about that is, if we ain’t winning, I ain’t gonna be no Sixth Man of the Year,” Clarkson said. “Lou was averaging, what, close to 18, 19 last year. He wasn’t getting no terms of recognition for being sixth man of the year because we were losing.