Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg edged former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award Monday night.
Flagg set a host of records for an NBA teenager in an also-ran season for the Mavs. He became 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 Charlotte Hornets to a 25-win improvement that almost led to a spot in the playoffs.
The 19-year-old 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.
“I see the games every night. I can check the box scores,” Flagg said when asked how close of an eye he kept on Knueppel during the season.
“I think also I was watching Kon just because that’s one of my brothers. We had such a good connection, and we’re gonna be there for each other for the rest of our lives. I was watching him as a fan as well, but there was obviously that competition at the same time.”
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Nuggets’ mascot ‘Rocky’ hits a backwards halfcourt shot from the top of two ladders!
The rookie award was 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.
Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City Thunder into the Western Conference semi-finals
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points, Chet Holmgren added 24 and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Phoenix Suns 131-122 on Monday night, capping a four-game sweep in the first-round series.
The Thunder – who have a 12-0 record in the first round over the last three seasons – will face the winner of the Los Angeles Lakers-Houston Rockets series in the Western Conference semi-finals.
The Lakers have a 3-1 lead, though the Rockets won Game 4.
