In the long and storied history of the NBA, only five times has a team nabbed the Rookie of the Year in back-to-back seasons…until this year.
Yesterday, Spurs guard Stephon Castle won the 2025 ROTY award. This is the second year in a row the Spurs have drafted the winner of the award.
The first time involved Water Bellamy, who went to the Chicago Packers as the number one overall pick of 1961-62. He went on to be named ROTY. The next season Terry Dischinger was named the 1962-63 ROTY. Dischinger was the second round pick by the Chicago Zephyrs. The Zephyrs were the same team as the Packers but had undergone a name change.
Chicago Zephyrs became the Baltimore Bullets in 1963 and pulled off back-to-back Rookies of the Year again.
In 1967-1968, Earl Monroe who was drafted second overall received the honors followed in 1968-1969 with Wes Unseld, also the league’s second overall pick.
Two years later, Geoff Petrie, the Portland Trail Blazers’s eighth overall pick of 1970 shared the ROTY honors with Dave Cowens. The next year, Sidney Wicks, the second overall pick of the 1971-72 season joined forces with Petrie when he commanded the ROTY honors.
The following season, 1972-1973, the Buffalo Braves drafted Bob McAdoo second overall who won the Rookie award. The next year they landed Ernie DiGregorio with the third pick and he followed suit with the ROTY honors.
Four times in a dozen years, teams pulled rabbits out of their hats in consecutive years. But since 1973, it had only happened one time.
In 2014, the Minnesota Timberwolves picked Andrew Wiggins with the number one spot in the draft. In 2015, he was named Rookie of the Year. The following season Minnesota drafted Karl-Anthony Towns with the number one pick and he also earned the ROTY hardware.
In 2023, the San Antonio Spurs drafted Victor Wembanyama, the unanimous Rookie of the Year.
And yesterday, Stephon Castle, the fourth pick in the 2024 NBA Draft was named this year’s NBA Rookie of The Year, making he and Wemby the sixth pair of back-to-back rookies from the same team to acquire the honors.
Let’s hear it for Area 51.
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