Wembanyama named unanimous NBA rookie of the year after stunning debut season

Victor Wembanyama had a year like no other in NBA history. Others scored more points, others grabbed more rebounds, others had more blocks, others made more steals. But there had never been a player who posted all these averages in the first year of his career: at least 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.6 blocks and 1.2 steals per game.

Until now.

The long-awaited result became a reality on Monday, when the Spurs star was announced as the unanimous winner of the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award. The Frenchman is the third player from San Antonio to win the award. He joined David Robinson in 1990 and Tim Duncan in 1998 – both of whom, like Wembanyama, were No. 1 overall picks and were immediately anointed as centers who would lead Spurs to greatness. Both became members of the Hall of Fame.
“My goal was always to help my team as best I could and get better as the year went on,” Wembanyama said from San Antonio on TNT after the award was announced during the network’s NBA playoff pregame show. “I knew that to do this I had to be good individually and dominant on the field. So it was a huge thing for me and a big thing to get. It has always been very important and I am happy that it is finally official.”

Wembanyama is the sixth player to achieve every first place since the award was first presented in the 1952-53 season. He joins Houston’s Ralph Sampson (1984), Robinson (1990), the Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin (2011), Portland’s Damian Lillard (2013) and Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns (2016).

Chet Holmgren of Oklahoma City and Brandon Miller of Charlotte were the other finalists for the award. Wembanyama received all 99 first-place votes from a panel of reporters and broadcasters covering the competition. Holmgren received 98 of 99 second-place votes, and Miller received the other second-place vote, finishing third.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. of Miami was fourth, followed by Brandin Podziemski of Golden State and Dereck Lively II of Dallas. No other rookies received a second or third place finish.

There have been other near-unanimous selections in recent years: Orlando’s Paolo Banchero got 98 out of 100 first-place votes last year, Memphis’ Ja Morant got 99 out of 100 in 2020, Dallas’ Luka Doncic got 98 out of 100 in 2019, and Ben from Philadelphia received 98 of 100 votes in 2020. Simmons received 90 of 101 in 2018.

But the voters left no doubt: Wemby was the one. And he’s already working on getting better.

“Physically, the work will never be done,” Wembanyama said. “I have had my plan ready for my entire body for months and we continue to discover new ways to get better and work on my body. There is a lot I want to work on in terms of basketball.”

Wembanyama became the first international winner of the award since Doncic in 2019 and the fifth winner in the past ten seasons. Andrew Wiggins (Canada) won in 2015, Towns (Dominican Republic) won in 2016, Simmons (Australia) won in 2018 and Doncic followed the following season.

Wembanyama became just the fourth player and first rookie to finish a season with at least 1,500 points, 250 assists and 250 blocked shots. The others: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it five times, Hakeem Olajuwon did it twice and Robinson did it twice. No one had done it since 1993-94, when Olajuwon and Robinson both had seasons like that.

Wembanyama said his family has adjusted to life in the U.S. and the change from France to Texas wasn’t overwhelming.

“Without competition, it is the best country in the world for an athlete,” Wembanyama said. “The culture, everything, the infrastructure, it’s built for us to thrive. I’m really in a bubble. I know that I live a very privileged life as an NBA player and that many people care for me every day. This prize is also for them.”

The rookie award could be the start of a big week for Wembanyama, who will also be in the top three for Defensive Player of the Year. That award will be announced Tuesday, with Rudy Gobert of Minnesota and Bam Adebayo of Miami as the other finalists.

The NBA will unveil the MVP on Wednesday – Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Doncic or Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.