Kings guard Malik Monk reacted hilariously to the news of his exclusion from the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award with a social media post.
Two smiling face emojis and two facepalm emojis were Monk's response to a post from StatMamba on X (previously known as Twitter) that highlighted his record as the only player in 35 years to lead the NBA in bench points in consecutive seasons without winning the sixth man award.
The winner was Minnesota Timberwolves center Naz Reid, who beat out Monk by a razor-thin margin of 45 to 43 first-place votes in a historically close competition.
While playing for the Sacramento Kings, Monk has experienced a career resurgence. This past season, the guard had his best performance in seven years in the NBA, scoring 15.4 points per game while shooting 44.3% from the field and 35.5% from beyond the arc. He also averaged 2.0 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 26 minutes per game while playing off the bench.
Monk led all league bench players in assists (370) and points (1,110), despite sitting out the last nine games with an MCL strain. received some comments from Monk's ex-coaches who were disappointed that the 26-year-old did not take home the hardware after an outstanding season.
The winner was Minnesota Timberwolves center Naz Reid, who beat out Monk by a razor-thin margin of 45 to 43 first-place votes in a historically close competition.
While playing for the Sacramento Kings, Monk has experienced a career resurgence. This past season, the guard had his best performance in seven years in the NBA, scoring 15.4 points per game while shooting 44.3% from the field and 35.5% from beyond the arc. He also averaged 2.0 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 26 minutes per game while playing off the bench.
Monk led all league bench players in assists (370) and points (1,110), despite sitting out the last nine games with an MCL strain. received some comments from Monk's ex-coaches who were disappointed that the 26-year-old did not take home the hardware after an outstanding season.