Simmons wins rookie award in landslide

Australia’s Ben Simmons has joined basketball royalty by winning the NBA Rookie of the Year Award.

Ben Simmons, of the Philadelphia 76ers, with his rookie of the year award in Santa Monica, California Picture: AP.

Australia’s Ben Simmons has joined the sport’s 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, Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson and Kevin Durant.

Australian-born Kyrie Irving also won the award in 2012.

The award was expected to be a close race with the Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell, but the release of the vote tally revealed Simmons won in a landslide.

“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 Pelicans’ Anthony Davis.

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.

Melbourne-born Simmons easily beat Mitchell and the Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum to win the rookie gong.

US and Canadian sports journalists decided the awards, with 90 of their first place votes going to Simmons, just 11 to Mitchell and none to Tatum.

Mitchell and other critics questioned whether Simmons should be eligible for the award because they did not deem him a true rookie, but the vote was heavily in favour of Simmons. He 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 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 got out of his seat and hugged the Australian and Simmons was gracious backstage about his rivals.

AAP