San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama named unanimous NBA Rookie of the Year

San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama has been named NBA Rookie of the Year for the 2023-24 season. Wembanyama got 99 votes in his favour to become the unanimous choice of the award. The second place went to Oklahoma City Thunder center Chet Holmgren with 98 second-place votes while Charlotte Hornet's Brandon Miller came third.

He became only the sixth player in the last 40 years to be named as Rookie of the Year. Before him, Ralph Sampson (1984), David Robinson (1990), Blake Griffin (2011), Damian Lillard (2013), and Karl-Anthony Towns (2016) were named unanimous Rookie of the Year. He also joined Spurs' Robinson and Tim Duncan (1998) as the No. 1 pick to win the Rookie of the Year award.

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Wembanyama was the first overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft. He played in 71 games this season, averaging 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game. Wembanyama also become only the second rookie in the history of NBA to lead the league in blocks since Alonzo Mourning and O'Neal in 1992-93. He registered 250 blocks to his name in the season.

"My goals were always to help my team as best as I could and get better as the year went on," Wembanyama said from San Antonio on TNT after the award.

"I knew in order to do this I had to be individually good on the court and dominant. So, it was a huge thing for me and a big thing to get. It's always been really important and I'm glad it's finally official," he added.

Wembanyama, however, has his eyes set on bigger awards, such as Defensive Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player as well.

"The most important to me is always winning," Wembanyama said to sports website ESPN. "You know, winning the chip clearly is what I wanna do. But, those individual awards tell a lot about the path a player takes throughout his career to get to those heights. They are important to me and I'm dedicated to winning some."

His team, however, had a poor season which saw them lose 60 of their 82 regular season games.