BOSTON — Listen closely to the way the Celtics talk about Payton Pritchard. For years, even when he was a bench guy buried down the depth chart, there was clear respect from those who saw his work behind-the-scenes. This is the NBA, these guys don’t praise nobodies. If you’re not good enough or work hard enough, you will be forgotten.
Pritchard won’t be forgotten. Now, he’s in the history books in his own way. As expected, Pritchard was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year on Tuesday, putting a stamp on his breakout season off the C’s bench.