• All-Time NBA Rookie of the Year Winners | NBA.com Story
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Former Murray State All-American
Ja Morant has been named the 2019-20 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year.
Over the past 37 years (dating back to 1983-84) he is one of just three players to attend a non-Power 5 college and win the award joining Damian Lillard (2012-13 out of Weber State) and Larry Johnson (1991-92 out of UNLV).
Morant received 99 first-place votes from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and earned 498 total points. Miami Heat guard Kendrick Nunn finished in second place with 204 points. New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson received one first-place vote and finished in third place with 140 points.
The No. 2 overall pick by the Memphis Grizzlies in 2019, Morant averaged 17.8 points, 7.3 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 0.9 steals/game in 67 contests. He hit 47.7 percent from the field (33.5 percent from 3-point range and 77.6 percent at the free throw line.
Memphis finished 12th in the Western Conference in 2018-19, but with Morant helped guide the Grizzlies to a ninth place finish (winning one more game in nine fewer games), falling to Portland in the play-in game during the NBA Restart in Orlando.
At Murray State Morant earned first-team consensus All-American honors from the NCAA for being selected by the AP, NABC, Sporting News and USBWA. Overall Morant was the third OVC student-athlete to earn first-team consensus All-American honors joining Western Kentucky's Clem Haskins (1967) and Jim McDaniels (1971). He earned 13 total All-American honors during his sophomore season, including first-team honors from the Associated Press, Basketball Times, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Lute Olson, NABC, Sports Illustrated, USBWA and the Wooden Award and second-team honors from NBC Sports, Sporting News, Stadium and USA TODAY Sports.
Morant also won the Bob Cousy Award as the nation's top point guard and earned the Lute Olson National Player of the Year Award from CollegeInsider.com while also being a finalist for the Oscar Robertson, Naismith and Wooden National Player of the Year honors. Morant, the OVC Player of the Year and OVC Male Athlete of the Year, led Murray State to a 28-5 overall and 16-2 OVC record, a share of the OVC regular season championship and the OVC Tournament championship. He guided the Racers to an 83-64 win over No. 5 seed Marquette in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament; that marked the second-biggest win for a No. 12 seed over a No. 5 seed in tournament history.
He finished the season with 331 assists, the sixth-most in NCAA single-season history. He averaged 24.5 points and 10.0 assists/game making him the first player to average 20/10 in a season since the NCAA began to officially recognize assists in 1983-84. Morant's 10.0 assists/game were 2.3 assists/game more than second place. He also ranked eighth nationally in scoring (24.5 points/game), ninth in double-doubles (20) and 83rd in steals (1.76/game). He recorded three triple-doubles (including only the ninth in NCAA Tournament history), which led the country (he was one of only two people with multiple triple-doubles in 2018-19). His 18 assists in a game against UT Martin were the most by a Division I player this year and the second-most in OVC single-game history. His 20 double-doubles were just four off the nation's lead and he is the only player in the top 30 nationally in double-doubles under 6'6" tall.
Morant became the first Division I player in 20 years to record 40 points, 11 assists and five steals in a regulation game (doing so vs. SIUE). In that contest he hit 21-of-21 free throws, establishing a new OVC single-game record (just three off the NCAA mark); he was the first Division I player with 21 or more made free throws in a game without a miss in the past 20 years. He was named MVP of the OVC Tournament after averaging 32.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists/game while hitting 55.4 percent from the field and 79.2 percent from the free throw line. He had 29 points, eight assists and six rebounds in a semifinal win over Jacksonville State, including converting a traditional three-point play in the final 10 seconds to give him team the win. He followed that with 36 pointss, seven rebounds and three assists in a title game win over Belmont. Those two wins helped MSU avenge its only two OVC losses of the season.
Morant had 17 points, 16 assists and 11 assists in the First Round NCAA Tournament win over Marquette, marked just the ninth triple-double in NCAA Tournament history (since assists became an official stat in 1983-84). The 16 assists tied a first round NCAA record and were the second-most ever in a NCAA Tournament game.
Morant became just the 10th First Round NBA Draft pick in OVC history and in the Lottery Pick Era (since 1985), Morant was only the third Lottery Pick from the OVC, joining Tennessee State's Carlos Rogers in 1994 (No. 11 overall) and Murray State's Cameron Payne in 2015 (No. 14 overall).
By being pick No. 2 overall, Morant tied Eastern Kentucky's Jim Baechtold (No. 2 in 1952) as the highest-ever draft pick in OVC history.