Every now and then, it's worth taking a moment to appreciate the sports of basketball for what it really is beyond the highlight reels, on-court rivalries and social media antics: a purely team-centric sport.

And although the league is ripe with teams that no longer focus on just one or two superstars to do the heavy lifting en route to a championship run, let's not forget that there is one key piece on a team that personifies being a team player like no other: the sixth man.

Enter the likes of guards Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford, who have both been known by NBA fans as the epitome of what a great sixth man should be. Sure, they spend more time on the bench than on the court, but what matters most is their contributions once their numbers are called.

Having said that, the Los Angeles Clippers have found themselves in the headlines once again by boasting another feat accomplished by one of their often usung heroes in Williams who, on Friday, surpassed former Clipper Crawford for the second overall spot on the NBA's all-time bench scoring list.

Lou Williams has a good shot of becoming the NBA's leading bench scorer of all time before the end of the upcoming week as well, trailing only a few points behind Dell Curry's record of 11,147 points off the bench.

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If there's one milestone that Williams should strive for to cement his legacy, it's got to be bagging his third Sixth Man of the Year Award. Both he and Crawford – the NBA's record holder for most Sixth Man of the Year Awards won with three – have been duking it out for this title almost every season for the past half decade.

However, both men are facing some tough competition for the award this season, as the likes of Domantas Sabonis, Derrick Rose and Dennis Schröder are poised to break the trend of the Williams-Crawford race. Over the past five seasons, The Sixth Man of the Year Award has gone to either Williams or Crawford, with Eric Gordon being the only outlier during that span (2016-17).