Victor Wembanyama has won the 2023-24 NBA Rookie of the Year award, the league announced Monday night. Wembanyama, the heavy favorite to win the award before the season, is now the second consecutive No. 1 overall pick to take home the trophy following Paolo Banchero’s 2023 victory. In addition, he extends the streak of top-five picks as victors to seven years, joining Banchero, Scottie Barnes, LaMelo Ball, Ja Morant, Luka Doncic and Ben SImmons in that club.
Wembanyama was a unanimous winner, getting all 99 first-place votes. Thunder big man Chet Holmgren, who gave Wemby stiff competition for the honor early in the season, finished second in the voting and got 98 of the 99 second-place votes. Hornets wing Brandon Miller — the No. 2 overall pick last year — finished third. Here are the voting results:
Holmgren finished the year averaging 16.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists on a No. 1-seeded Thunder team. He has a strong chance at earning an All-Defense nod, shot efficiently from everywhere on the floor, and in any other year, likely would have taken the hardware. In the middle of the season, Holmgren was even the betting favorite.
That made sense given the circumstances Wembanyama — the first French player to win NBA Rookie of the Year — played through. His San Antonio Spurs went 22-60 on the season, and they were significantly worse early in the season, when they were starting Jeremy Sochan at point guard. In January, they made the switch to Tre Jones as their starting point guard, and he formed a stellar partnership with Wembanyama. When the two of them shared the floor, the Spurs outscored opponents by 5.2 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass.
The next major jump came after the All-Star break, when Wembanyama started posting historical stat lines practically every other night. On Feb. 24, Wembanyama posted an extremely rare five-by-five game in which he reached at least five points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. On April 2, he came one block and two assists short of a quadruple-double. All told, he averaged 23.5 points, 12 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 4.5 blocks and 1.5 steals per game after the All-Star break.
By the time the season ended, a consensus had formed. Not only was Wembanyama the best rookie of the 2023-24 season, but he is also among the greatest rookies in NBA history. He’s already made waves about winning Defensive Player of the Year awards in the near future, and it won’t be long after that until he starts winning MVPs as well. The NBA has never seen a rookie like Wembanyama, and now he has a trophy to prove it.
