| Spurs' Stephon Castle named 2024-25 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year Award winner
(From: uconnhuskies.com and nba.com) |
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San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle is the recipient of the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy as the 2024-25 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year.
Castle is the fourth player to win the Kia NBA Rookie of the Year Award with the Spurs, joining David Robinson (1989-90), Tim Duncan (1997-98) and last season’s recipient, Victor Wembanyama (2023-24). The Spurs are the first team to have back-to-back winners of this annual honor since the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2014-15 (Andrew Wiggins) and 2015-16 (Karl-Anthony Towns). In the 2024-25 regular season, Castle averaged 14.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 0.91 steals in 26.7 minutes in 81 games. He led all rookies in points per game, ranked fourth in assists per game and finished sixth in steals per game. Castle also had the most total points (1,190), steals (74) and free throws made (249) among first-year NBA players. Castle was named the Kia NBA Western Conference Rookie of the Month twice, for games played in January and March. In 30 games after the All-Star break, he averaged 17.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 28.6 minutes. At NBA All-Star 2025 in San Francisco, Castle was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the Castrol Rising Stars after helping his team earn a spot to play in the NBA All-Star Game. A global media panel of 100 voters selected the winner of the 2024-25 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year Award. The complete voting results are below. The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP. The 6'6 guard spent one season at Connecticut but made it a memorable one, earning BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and playing a crucial role on the 2024 national title team. Castle posted averages of 11.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game while starting the final 28 games of UConn's 37-3 campaign. He turned up his performance in the season's biggest moments, including a career-high 21 points in the Final Four vs. Alabama. Castle was named to the 2024 NCAA East Regional All-Regional Team and the Final Four All-Tournament Team. Castle joins Okafor as UConn's two Rookie of the Year winners and continues a strong tradition of Huskies in the NBA. UConn concluded the 2024-25 season with eight active Huskies and have three currently competing in the NBA Playoffs. |
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