Simmons joins NBA royalty with rookie win
AUSTRALIA’S Ben Simmons has joined basketball royalty by winning the NBA Rookie of the Year Award.
The 21-year-old Philadelphia 76ers star adds his name to a list of the greats of the game with past winners of the coveted prize including Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson and Kevin Durant.
Australian-born Kyrie Irving also won the award, in 2012.
“Wow,” said Simmons, after a slow walk up to the stage at the ceremony in Los Angeles yesterday.
“I’d like to thank my family and friends to start with. I wouldn’t be here without them.”
The Houston Rockets’ James Harden won the top prize of the ceremony, NBA Player of the Year, ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and New Orleans Pelican Anthony Davis.
The other winners were the Jazz’s Rudy Gobert (defensive player), the LA Clippers’ Lou Williams (sixth man) and the Indiana Pacers’ Victor Oladipo (most improved).
Dwane Casey, fired by the Toronto Raptors despite the team achieving the best regular season record in the NBA’s Eastern Conference, ironically won Coach of the Year.
The great Oscar Robertson, who Simmons has been compared to, won the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Melbourne-born Simmons beat the Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell and the Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum to win the rookie gong.
It became a contentious battle debated furiously in the US media, on social platforms and among former and present NBA players with Mitchell and other critics questioning whether Simmons should be eligible for the award because they did not deem him a true rookie.
Simmons sat out the entire 2016-17 season with a foot fracture, but remained with the 76ers and worked out with the team and coaches until making his game debut the past season.
Mitchell and Tatum were drafted in 2017.
Mitchell wore shirts with slogans inflaming the debate and kept up the barbs on Monday when he arrived in a van for the ceremony with “ROOKIE?” on the side.
When Simmons, who attended the ceremony without celebrity girlfriend Kendall Jenner, was announced the winner Mitchell rose from his seat and hugged the Australian.
Simmons said: “I try not to let the media hype things up or fans or whatever it is just because I know I’m doing what I love and I do what I can on the floor.
“That doesn’t take anything away from Jayson or Donovan. They had excellent, amazing, tremendous seasons.”
The award was decided by members of the US and Canadian sports media and Sim- mons likely benefited from the date votes had to be cast.
The deadline was back in April at the end of the NBA regular season when Simmons was leading the 76ers, without injured All-Star teammate Joel Embiid, on a record win-streak and regularly achieving tripledoubles.
Simmons, Mitchell and Tatum were sensational in the playoffs, although the Australian was eventually exposed by the Celtics for his inability to make and take mid-range and three-point shots.
Tatum was the only rookie nominee who took his team to the conference finals.