The National Basketball Association’s Rookie of the Year Award is one of the most awaited annual NBA award given to the most talented rookie in a regular season. The selection of winner is done by a panel of sportswriters around the United States and Canada. The selection is divided into 3 parts – 1st place, 2nd place and 3rd place. The 1st place gets 5 point votes, the second gets 3 points while the 3rd place gets only a point. The rookie/s with the highest total of points will receive an Eddie Gottlieb Trophy. The throphy was named in honor of the Philadelphia Warriors head coach who led the team to the 1946-1947 First NBA Championship.
The first NBA Rookie of the Year was awarded to Don “Monk” Meineke of Fort Wayne Pistons after the 1952-1953 NBA Season while the most recent award was received by Kevin Durant of the Seattle Supersonics. Wilt Chamberlain and Wes Unseld both received NBA Most Valuable Player Award and Rookie of the Year in the same season. Twelve Rookie of the Year Awardee won Most Valuable Player too during their careers. Nineteen of the Rookie of the Year winners have been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. So far, there are three winners who were not born in the United States – Patric Ewing (Jamaica), Tim Duncan (US Virgin Islands) and Pau Gasol (Spain). Among the three, Tim Duncan is an American Citizen but considered as an internation player for he was not born in the United States.
