Alan Williams Wins 2017 Dan Majerle Hustle Award

‘Big Sauce’ Alan Williams has entered a category of exceptional Phoenix Suns players, a list comprised of fewer members than there are in the of the Ring of Honor.

Originally awarded in 2003, the Dan Majerle Hustle Award is an honor the Phoenix Suns bestows upon the roster’s most hardworking, blue collar player each season. While not necessarily an award for most talented or athletic, the award is one that recognizes that player which metaphorically puts on his work clothes, plays with passion, fire, and intensity each and every game, and never calls in sick.

Heading into this season the award had been won by small forward P.J. Tucker for the past four seasons, with his grasp on it this year too remaining as tight as a vice.

But on the bench was one player who certainly too deserved recognition, even if he was not receiving the playing time the veteran Tucker was.

That man was Alan Williams.

Even though throughout the majority of the season’s first half his highlights comprised of nothing more than excited screams, jovial laughing, emphatic high-fiving that would make Steve Nash blush, and unchoreographed (and occasionally uncoordinated) dancing, Williams exemplified precisely what the award represented, and then some.

For the first month of the season Williams received a total of 9:24 totaled from just three minor appearances. Then on November 18, Head Coach Earl Watson shook up the lineup and for three games made Williams a central part of the rotation. He did not disappoint.

Big Sauce channeled that offcourt energy into oncourt positional dominance. For three games in four days Williams looked like the young ball-hounding center the franchise has longed for for decades, recording back-to-back double-doubles while shooting an incredible 72.2% from the field.

Then as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared.

Never once complaining, never once standing up the players, the coaching staff, or management, Williams went back to the role he had been accustomed to, that of the team’s biggest (literally) and most vocal cheerleader.

For two and a half months Big Sauce led the team from the bench, stepping foot on the court only 14 times, totally incapable of recapturing the insanity of those first three games due to a lack of minutes and rotational consistency.

Just when it seemed he would never see the playing time he had prior enjoyed, on February 10, in a nationally televised game with the Chicago Bulls, Williams received 23:50 of gametime and in the process recorded his third double-double of the season while shooting 58.3% from the field.

While he wouldn’t get that kind of action again in the first half’s final three games, Williams proved that his early games were repeatable, and that should the opportunity arise, he would not disappoint.

That opportunity did come, of course, as a result of two different management decisions.

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First, Tyson Chandler was informed that he would be sitting for the rest of the season meaning Alex Len would become the regular starter and Alan Williams would become the first backup off the bench. Williams would not get his minutes.

Then, with moments to spare on trade deadline day, P.J. Tucker was traded to the Toronto Raptors, meaning the Hustle Award was now up for grabs, and Williams became the leader in the clubhouse.

The start of the second half came with a bang. Scoring 16 points in the team’s first game back from the break, Williams recorded a 17 point and 15 rebound double-double in his second outing.

Then five days later Big Sauce played huge beginning a streak of five consecutive double-doubles and nine in thirteen games.

Along the way Williams became the team’s most consistent and prolific contributor both off the bench and on the boards. His five consecutive double-doubles broke the team record of four consecutive double-doubles off the bench, a record previously set by Larry Nance in 1988. He reached double-digit scoring in his first thirteen games after the All-Star break. His 11 double-doubles since the break alone would be second on the team behind Tyson Chandler’s 12, although he has 15 on the season – the team lead.

And finally on the night of his award presentation, last night, in only 25:19, Williams snagged a career-high 17 rebounds, becoming the first Sun to grab at least 17 in 25:59 or less since Maurice Lucas recorded 19 in 24 minutes in 1985.

All in all Alan ‘Big Sauce’ Williams has had a magical second season playing for his hometown Phoenix Suns. From hardly ever seeing the court to becoming a player worthy of extension this offseason, Williams has both become a fan favorite, and exemplified exactly what it is that the Dan Majerle Hustle Award stands for.

There is no other on this roster more worthy of such rarified air.

List of Hustle Award Winners

2003 – Bo Outlaw

2004 – Casey Jacobsen

2005 – Shawn Marion

2006 – Raja Bell

2007- Leandro Barbosa

2008 – Grant Hill

2009 – Lou Amundson

2010 – Jared Dudley

2011 – Grant Hill

2012 – Sebastian Telfair

2013 – P.J. Tucker

2014 – P.J. Tucker

2015 – P.J. Tucker

2016 – P.J. Tucker

2017 – Alan Williams