San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama came into the NBA with as much hype as anyone since LeBron James, expected to produce right away and change the Spurs’ culture. And despite a lack of team success in his rookie season, he was everything fans expected and more, which he was rightfully credited for on Monday night.
Wembanyama thrived in nearly every aspect of the game in his rookie season, averaging 21.4 points per game and 10.6 rebounds while also dominating on the defensive end, leading the NBA with 3.6 blocks per game. This was the case despite playing limited minutes for much of the year, averaging just 29.7 minutes per game.
For a while, the race for the Rookie of the Year award was close between Wembanyama and Oklahoma City Thunder star Chet Holmgren. But in the end, the overall production from Wembanyama stood alone. And on Monday, Wembanyama was rightfully awarded the Rookie of the Year award on TNT’s pre-game broadcast for the NBA Playoffs.
Victor Wembanyama is officially the NBA Rookie of the Year. #Wemby 🏀🏆🦄 pic.twitter.com/Ys4yt2wovB
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 6, 2024
The Inside the NBA crew had plenty of positive things to say after Shaquille O’Neal made the announcement.
“I wouldn’t even have opened that envelope,” said Charles Barkley. “I’ll tell you what, he’s in a great situation down there with Coach Popovich. He’s gonna teach him to play basketball the right way. He seems like a really nice kid. I’m excited about his future.”
“What I’ve seen from him is that he is a new-age center,” said Shaquille O’Neal. “He’s a big that can pop out, cross you up, play on the break.”
Fans on social media echoed their sentiments on social media, praising Wembanyama for what has been a very impressive rookie year.
Victor Wembanyama wins the 2024 Rookie of the Year award!
UNREAL SEASON pic.twitter.com/CT62BUJr13
— Spurs Culture (@SpursCulture) May 6, 2024
Victor Wembanyama gets all 99 first-place votes to join David Robinson (1989-90) and Tim Duncan (1997-98) as San Antonio’s NBA Rookie of the Year winners.
More NBA from me: https://t.co/A6ycVmnrjq pic.twitter.com/vX9eMqsd1c
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 6, 2024
Victor Wembanyama:
— 21/11/4b
— NBA blocks leader
— NBA stocks leader
— Most BLK by a rookie in 30+ seasons
— 1st 20/10 rookie season since Blake
— 1st 20/10/3 season this century (all players)
— 1st season with 250+ BLK and 100+ 3PRun away ROTY. pic.twitter.com/pIhMAkNssc
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 6, 2024
The best of the newly named Rookie of the Year: Victor Wembanyama 📹pic.twitter.com/vDq8i9vEjW
— WembyNationCP (@WembyNationCP) May 6, 2024
Victor Wembanyama this season had more:
Points than Kyrie Irving
Wemby (1,522) 👉 Kai (1,487)Rebounds than LeBron James:
Wemby (755) 👉 LBJ (518)He is also the first rookie since Manute Bol (85-86) to lead the NBA in blocks and the first rookie to record 250 blocks in a… pic.twitter.com/8WbmDhEgke
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 6, 2024
As some fans pointed out, the vote was unanimous in terms of first-place votes for the award, which shows just how great Wembanyama was this past season.
The Spurs organization clearly has a ton of work to do to build a contender in the future. But this season very clearly proved that Wembanyama is a player that the team can build around as a true number-one option.
