LOS ANGELES – At the rate he’s
going, J.J. Redick is going to have to reserve a room in the
house, condominium or apartment he eventually resides in as an NBA rookie for
all the hardware he’s picking up.
The Duke senior was announced as
the 30th winner of the John R. Wooden Award Saturday morning during a
nationally televised ceremony in the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
The announcement came less than 24
hours after Redick picked up the Naismith Trophy in Atlanta.
Redick, the runner-up to Andrew Bogut of Utah in the Wooden
Award voting a year ago, was selected the Associated Press Player of the Year on
March 31 – the day after he was chosen as the co-winner of the Oscar Robertson
Trophy (with Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison) by the United States Basketball Writers Association.
Morrison was the runner-up in the
balloting, with 4,574 points to Redick’s 4,646 – with the 72-point differential
among the 1,000-plus voters the third closest in the award’s history. Danny Manning
(Kansas) edged Hersey Hawkins (Bradley) by 20 points
in 1988, two years after Walter
Berry (St. John’s) finished in
front of Johnny Dawkins (Duke) by 45
points. Dawkins, now the associate head coach with the Blue Devils, accompanied
Redick to the ceremony.
And Redick joined Duke alums Christian Laettner (1992), Elton Brand (1999), Shane Battier (2001), Jason Williams (2002) and Alana Beard (the inaugural winner of
the women’s award in 2004) as Wooden Award winners.
Redick’s teammate and fellow
senior, Shelden Williams, was third
in the 2006 voting (2,142 points), and was in attendance for the ceremony
Saturday, as were the fourth- (Randy Foye of Villanova/2,050 points) and fifth-place (Brandon Roy of Washington/1,885 points)
finishers.
The 95-year-old Wooden wasn’t at
the press conference and wasn’t expected to attend the awards banquet later
Saturday evening (for the first time) because of an-ongoing dispute, dating more than a year, between
his family (daughter Nan Wooden
Muehlhausen handles Wooden’s financial affairs) and the L.A. Athletic Club.
The LAAC has sponsored the award since its inception in 1977 and was giving the
rights to the name “John R. Wooden Award” by the man considered by many to be
the greatest American coach ever, regardless of the sport.
Redick has met Wooden at least
twice (during last year’s banquet and as a prep senior as a McDonald’s
All-America).
“I feel lucky to be associated with
any award that has Coach Wooden’s name on it,” he said.
“And I’m most proud of the fact
that I’m now part of the Duke legacy with all of those who have won the
award.”
Redick will be in
Los Angeles until Monday, when he
flies to New York for the Sullivan
Award presentation (he’s a finalist).
If you wonder if Redick would trade
any of the individual honors that have come his way of late to have been a part
of a Duke team that would have played in the Final Four last weekend in
Indianapolis, the answer is “apparently”.
“I would trade any (individual)
award for a team championship,” he said. “They don’t fill the void created by
the loss (to LSU in a Sweet 16 game in
Atlanta on March 23.).”
LSU’s Seimone Augustus won the women’s award
for the second year in a row. She was en route to
Australia as a
member of a U.S.
women’s team, so the award was accepted by her parents, Kim and Seymore Augustus.
Ivory Latta
(North Carolina), Cappie Pondexter
(Rutgers), Courtney Paris
(Oklahoma) and Monique Currie (Duke) were next in the
women’s voting.
Inducted into the USBWA Hall of
Fame last April, Frank Burlison is Scout.com’s national basketball expert and is
also a columnist for the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram. He can be reached at
frank.burlison@presstelegram.com. Read more of Burlison’s pieces at
www.frankhoops.com