Bucks general manager John Hammond has won the National Basketball Association's Executive of the Year award.

Hammond becomes the first Bucks executive to be so honored since the award's inception for the 1972-'73 season.

Voting is done by executives from the league's 30 teams. Hammond received 12 votes to place first, while Oklahoma City's Sam Presti was second with nine votes and Cleveland's Danny Ferry finished third with two votes.

Hammond was recognized for his work in reshaping the Bucks roster. In just his second year as the team's general manager, the Bucks improved from 34 to 46 victories and reached the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

"To have a regular season where we won 46 games and to be in the playoffs, I don't think we could ask a whole lot more out of the guys in that locker room than to be where we're at," Hammond said.

"The award goes to me, but that's it. To me, this is all about the guys in the trenches."

The Bucks play Game 3 of their Eastern Conference series against Atlanta on Saturday night at the Bradley Center. Former Bucks forward and basketball Hall of Famer Bob Lanier presented Hammond with his award before tip-off, to a loud ovation from the Bradley Center crowd.

Earlier this week, Bucks coach Scott Skiles was runner-up in the league's coach of the year balloting, finishing behind Oklahoma City's Scott Brooks.

Mark Warkentien of the Denver Nuggets was last year's executive of the year winner, and Danny Ainge of the Boston Celtics won in 2008. Jerry Colangelo, who was general manager of the Phoenix Suns, is the only person to win the award four times.

Hammond made a bold move in selecting point guard Brandon Jennings with the 10th overall pick in the 2009 draft, and Jennings started all 82 games for the Bucks and helped the team reach the playoffs.

The Bucks general manager also traded Richard Jefferson to San Antonio last summer to gain some roster and financial flexibility, and he let Charlie Villanueva become an unrestricted free agent and move on to the Detroit Pistons. Hammond signed Carlos Delfino and Ersan Ilyasova to multiyear deals, and he acquired the rights to Delfino in a trade with Toronto.

"They were difficult decisions, to not re-sign Charlie, same with Ramon (Sessions) and to move Richard," Hammond said. "Those guys were all very good people for us. We couldn't ask anything more than what Richard Jefferson did for us last year as a player and a person.

"Charlie was great for us and Ramon came for us like gangbusters. We didn't know. It's not like we said, 'We're going to make these difficult decisions and it's all going to fit together the way it did.' It happened for us and I think we're just very fortunate."

Hammond utilized some of his expiring contracts to acquire guard John Salmons at the February trade deadline, and the 6-foot-6 veteran helped the Bucks win 12 of 13 games immediately after he joined the team. Milwaukee was 22-8 overall after obtaining Salmons on Feb. 18.

A month earlier, Hammond signed veteran Jerry Stackhouse to help fill a void created when guard Michael Redd was lost with a season-ending knee injury.

Hammond also hired Skiles as one of his first moves after coming to the Bucks on April 11, 2008. Before joining the Bucks, the Zion, Ill., native spent seven seasons as the vice president of basketball operations of the Detroit Pistons.

He was with the Pistons organization as it twice reached the NBA Finals and won one league championship.

Hammond thanked his management team, including assistant general manager Jeff Weltman, director of player personnel Dave Babcock and director of scouting Billy McKinney.

"I had the good fortune of working for Joe Dumars (in Detroit) for seven years," Hammond said. "My wife used to say that Joe and I were attached at the hip, you never saw us apart.

"Joe gave me an opportunity to be involved in every single decision, no matter how large or how small it was. Jeff is beside me on everything we do. I told the Senator (Bucks owner Herb Kohl) when we went through the hiring process that Jeff's strengths are my weaknesses.

"Having Dave Babcock here with us; he's just a tireless, relentless worker, and you appreciate him. And of course, Billy McKinney, he's the guy if not for him I definitely wouldn't be sitting here right now.

"He's the one who first hired me in the NBA. When he became the general manger of the Minnesota Timberwolves, he brought me out of college basketball into the NBA."



Hammond said he looked at the list of previous award winners earlier in the day, a roster including Red Auerbach, Colangelo, Jerry West, Frank Layden, Wayne Embry and Hammond's former boss, Dumars.

"What I feel sitting in front of you, I think what's John Hammond of Zion, Ill., doing here right now?" he said.