LaMelo Ball Has Won 2021 NBA Rookie Of The Year

At the midway point of the season, it looked as though there would be little drama for the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award. LaMelo Ball of the Hornets was playing spectacularly for one of the league’s most pleasant surprises, with many of the rest of the top half of the lottery either struggling or dealing with injuries.

Then, Ball injured his wrist, keeping him out 21 games before returning for the stretch run in May, and as he was injured, top overall pick Anthony Edwards began to hit his stride in Minnesota, seemingly closing the gap and making for quite the ROY debate. Ball averaged 15.7 points, 6.1 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game on 43.6/35.2/75.8 shooting splits for the season over his 51 games, while Edwards averaged 19.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists on 41.7/32.9/77.6 splits, playing all 72 games.

In the end, Ball’s strong start and eventual solid close for a Charlotte team that eventually lost in the first game of the play-in was enough to earn him Rookie of the Year honors, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Unsurprisingly, the Timberwolves weren’t happy to hear the report, posting this in reaction to Woj breaking the Ball news.

The announcement was officially made on TNT’s pregame coverage prior to Game 5 between the Hawks and Sixers, with a video showing Miles Bridges surprising Ball with the award at the Hornets team store — with Ball genuinely getting shocked to see the award.

As for voting, it wasn’t as close as some (including myself) anticipated, with Ball receiving 84 of the 99 first place votes, with only four players in total getting votes at all, as Edwards finished second, Tyrese Haliburton finished third, and Saddiq Bey garnered three third place votes.