The French Victor Wembanyama confirmed all the predictions this Monday and won the Rookie of the Year award in the NBA, after a spectacular landing in the best basketball league on the planet. The 20-year-old San Antonio Spurs center beat the other two finalists for this rookie of the year award: Chet Holmgren (Oklahoma City Thunder) and Brandon Miller (Charlotte Hornets).
‘Wemby’ is the first player in NBA history with at least 1,500 points, 700 rebounds, 250 assists, 250 blocks and 100 triples in a season. “My goal was always to help the team the best I could, to improve as the year progressed, and I knew that to do that I had to be individually good and dominant on the court,” he said this Monday in statements to the TNT network, which announced the prize.
The award for Wembanyama was a unanimous decision since received 99 of the 99 possible votes for Rookie of the Year in first position (each panel member had three possibilities). Only five players had previously won this award with one hundred percent of the votes: Ralph Sampson, David Robinson, Blake Griffin, Damian Lillard and the Dominican Karl-Anthony Towns.
Behind of Wembanyama, Holmgren y Miller (in that order) the Mexican appeared Jaime Jaquez Jr., fourth in the vote after a very outstanding performance with the Miami Heat.
Wembanyama made a stratospheric debut in the NBA with some amazing averages of 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.6 blocks (the player with the most in this campaign) and 1.2 steals in 29.7 minutes per game.
The landing of this basketball prodigy in the NBA was preceded by enormous expectation unlike anything seen since LeBron James appeared in the league more than 20 years ago. He did not disappoint at all after the hopes placed in him. At 2.24 meters tall, Wembanyama has displayed on the courts his exceptional combination: the height and intimidation of a gigantic center along with a fascinating skill and speed that is more reminiscent of a point guard or a shooting guard.
He is the first Frenchman to win this award in the NBA and the third Spurs player to do so, after two legends of the inside game: the aforementioned Robinson and Tim Duncan. Furthermore, he is finalist for the Defender of the Year awardalong with his compatriot Rudy Gobert of the Minnesota Timberwolves (the favorite to earn that recognition) and Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat.
Wembanyama’s wonderful performance in his first year in the NBA was not echoed by his team, the San Antonio Spurs, led by Gregg Popovich, who finished second to last in the Western Conference with a horrible record of 22-60. Waiting to see if the Spurs take a step forward next season to accompany the generational talent they have on their hands, Wembanyama will face a very special appointment this summer with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games leading the French team.
2024-05-07 03:08:50
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