Irving is Rookie of the Year
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 -- 12:37 PM
Cleveland Cavalier guard Kyrie Irving has won the NBA?s Rookie of the Year Award.Irving received 117 of 120 possible first-place votes from a nationwide media panel of writers and broadcasters. He finished with 592 points, way ahead of Minnesota's Ricky Rubio (170) and Denver's Kenneth Faried (129). Faried, San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard and New York's Iman Shumpert received the other first-place votes, denying Irving's bid to become the fourth player to win the award unanimously.
The 20-year-old is the second Cleveland player to win the award, joining LeBron James in 2004. He also became the fourth No. 1 overall draft pick to receive the honor in the past 10 years.
Irving led all rookies in scoring with 18.5 points per game. He also led all rookies in field-goal percentage (46.8), was second in assists (5.4) and became one of just six rookies in league history to average at least 18 points and five assists.
Irving appears to be the major piece the Cavs can build around, and they plan to get him some help next month with three of the top 34 picks in the NBA draft.
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