NEW YORK – The San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama has been unanimously selected to the NBA’s All-Rookie Team this season, the league revealed Monday.
It was no surprise, given that Wembanyama was also the unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year from the same panel of 99 voters who cast their ballots for the league’s awards this season.
Wimbanyama is joined on the first team by Oklahoma City Thunder’s Chet Holmgren, Charlotte Hornets’ Brandon Miller, Miami Heat’s Jaime Jaquez Jr., and Golden State Warriors’ Branden Podzemski.
Holmgren – Wimpanyama’s runner-up in this year’s Rookie of the Year race – was also a unanimous first-team selection.
Miller, Jaquiz and Podzemski finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the New Year’s ballot announced earlier this month. This was also the order in which they finished All-Rookie team voting, with Jaquez joining Wembanyama and Holmgren as the only players to appear on all 99 ballots.
The Dallas Mavericks’ Derek Lively was among the rookies on the second team, along with the Houston Rockets’ Amen Thompson, the Utah Jazz’s Keonte George, the Thunder’s Kason Wallace and the Memphis Grizzlies’ JJ Jackson. Jackson finished last by one vote over the Warriors’ Trayce Jackson-Davis.
The All-Defensive Team selections will be revealed on Tuesday, and the All-NBA All-Defensive Team selections will be revealed on Wednesday. Wembanyama will likely be a first-team All-Defense player — he was No. 2 in the Defensive Player of the Year race ahead of Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert — and he certainly earns All-NBA consideration as well.
If Wimbanyama makes the All-Defense or All-NBA team, or both, he will be the first rookie to do so since two other San Antonio centers who, like him, were No. 1 overall draft picks, those being Tim Duncan in 1998 and David Robinson in 1990. .
Only five rookies played on defense: Duncan, Robinson, and Manute Bol of Washington (1986), Hakeem Olajuwon of Houston (1985), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Milwaukee Bucks (1970).
If Wembanyama makes it to the NBA, he will be the 22nd rookie to do so in NBA history. Of those, only four have done so in the last 45 seasons: Duncan, Robinson, the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan (1985), and the Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird (1980).
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