Five-time NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers guard Derek Fisher wins the Sportsman of the Year award at the Sixth Annual L.A. Sports Awards at the Beverly Hilton on Thursday night. The L.A. Sports Awards is an annual awarding event presented by the Los Angeles Sports Council.
Fisher said, “It’s always quite humbling to receive awards for not just things you do on the court as an athlete, but recognition for things you attempt to do off the court, in the community.”
Aside from his individual award, Fisher also accepted the Top Sports Moment of the Year award won by the Los Angeles Lakers when they claimed their sixteenth NBA championship last season against the Boston Celtics.
Fisher is currently in his second stint with the Lakers as he signed with the Golden State Warriors in 2004 as a free agent then was traded to the Utah Jazz in 2006. In 2007, his daughter Tatum was diagnosed with a degenerative and rare form of eye cancer called retinoblastoma. He would eventually ask the Jazz to release him from his contract so he could relocate to a team and city that would have the “right combination” of specialists that could help fight his daughter’s condition, which the Jazz organization honored. He rejoined the Lakers in July 2007 and has won 2 more championships (2009 and 2010) after winning 3 (2000-2002) during his first stint with the team.
Fisher, drafted in the same draft class as teammate Kobe Bryant, was the twenty fourth overall pick of the 1996 NBA Draft. “The city of Los Angeles has been not just a second home, but a home to me since I was drafted here in 1996, and I take very, very seriously my commitment to this city,” he said.
The Los Angeles Sports Council had also chosen the top 10 Los Angeles Sports Moments of 2010 which included Lakers’ owner Jerry Buss’ induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Clippers’ Eric Gordon and Lakers’ Lamar Odom’s roles during the FIBA World Championships in Turkey, and the Lakers’ sixteenth NBA championship last year, which was selected as the Top Moment of 2010, among others.
Fisher, a very instrumental piece of all the Lakers’ championship titles in this decade, is the current president of the NBA Players’ Association. He succeeded the previous president Antonio Davis in 2006.
(via ESPN)
