Dallas' Cooper Flagg edged former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel of Charlotte to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award Monday night.
Flagg was the first rookie since Michael Jordan in 1984-85 to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals. That and other accolades for a teenager were enough to overcome a difficult season for the Mavericks, while Knueppel helped the Hornets qualify for the play-in tournament.
Flagg and Knueppel were first and second
in rookie scoring, the first former college teammates to do that since UConn stars Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon in 2004-05. Philadelphia's VJ Edgecombe was the other finalist.
The rookie award is the sixth to be announced by the NBA since the end of the regular season. The others:
— San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama was the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year.
— Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got 96 of a possible 100 first-place votes to win the Clutch Player of the Year award.
— San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson won Sixth Man of the Year.
— Boston’s Derrick White won the Sportsmanship Award. That award, unlike most others, is selected solely by active players.
— Atlanta’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker won Most Improved Player.
Other award announcements yet to be scheduled include MVP (either Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver’s Nikola Jokic) and Coach of the Year (either Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson or Boston’s Joe Mazzulla).
The NBA will announce the Executive of the Year, the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year and the Hustle Award winner later this week.
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