CAITLIN CLARK WINS WNBA ROOKIE OF.THE YEAR

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark was a near-unanimous pick for WNBA Rookie of the Year, the league announced Thursday.

Clark, the No. 1 draft pick in April, got 66 of 67 votes from a national media panel. The other vote went to the Chicago Sky's Angel Reese, who was the No. 7 pick in the draft.

Fever players have won the award in back-to-back seasons; Indiana forward/center Aliyah Boston won the honor last year after she was also the No. 1 draft pick. Clark and Boston helped lead the Fever to their first playoff appearance since 2016 before they were swept in the first round by the Connecticut Sun.

"I am incredibly honored to be named Rookie of the Year, but more than that, I am grateful to everyone that supported me throughout this past season -- my family and friends, my teammates, the Fever organization and everyone that cheered us on all season. I am so proud of what we accomplished and so excited for what the future holds," Clark said in a statement.

Clark was joined on the WNBA All-Rookie Team by Reese, Sky center Kamilla Cardoso, the Los Angeles Sparks' Rickea Jackson and the New York Liberty's Leonie Fiebich.

Clark had a record-breaking first WNBA season that followed her history-making college career at Iowa, where she became the all-time leading scorer in Division I basketball, men's or women's.

She started all 40 regular-season games for the Fever, who went 20-20 and finished sixth in the league. She averaged 19.2 points, a WNBA-best 8.4 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 35.4 minutes per game. She led all rookies in each of those categories except rebounding, in which she was third. Reese led the WNBA in rebounding average at 13.1.

Along with leading the league in assists, Clark was first in 3-pointers (122) and second in minutes per game and free throw percentage (90.6). She was seventh overall in scoring.

Her 337 assists set a WNBA single-season record, and she had a single-game record of 19 assists against the Dallas Wings in July. She also set a rookie season mark with 769 points and became the first WNBA rookie to record a triple-double. (She had two.)

Speaking after the Fever's 87-81 loss in Game 2 against the Sun, Clark said she was thrilled about the potential she and the team have ahead of them.

"The fun part is I feel like I'm just scratching the surface," Clark said. "I know I want to help this franchise get even better, help my teammates get even better, be better for my teammates. I know there's a lot of room for me to continue to improve, so that's what excites me the most."

- Michael Voepel, ESPN Senior Writer

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA HAILED AS NBA ROOKIE OF THE YEAR IN CEREMONY

 SAN ANTONIO -- After teammate-led chants of "Wemby! Wemby!" a smiling Victor Wembanyama entered the theater at the Scobee Planetarium to a rousing ovation from the 50 or so children in attendance.

This wasn't your normal Rookie of the Year award presentation -- fitting for someone who has been dubbed an alien.

Wembanyama walked in and took his seat in the front row of the 100-seat theater with kids from local Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brother/Big Sister programs and students from a nearby elementary school sitting amongst several of Wembanyama's San Antonio Spurs teammates and staffers.

Before he walked in, Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan got the kids riled up and chanting as the Rookie of the Year entered the room.

Wembanyama and company watched a video about his rookie season -- featuring clips from Wembanyama as young as seven years old -- before Spurs general manager Brian Wright presented him with his trophy.

"This is one of the representations of our progress throughout the year and all the efforts we made on the court," Wembanyama said. "I think receiving this trophy here with fans, with kids and everyone being happy to be here, it's also a good feeling for me and a good representation of the love that we felt throughout the year. To me, this is the right way to receive [the trophy]."

On Monday, Wembanyama was named the unanimous winner of the Rookie of the Year award, becoming the sixth player to do so in the last 40 seasons and the first since Karl-Anthony Towns in 2016 with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Despite that, Wembanyama said he never felt that the race was over because he was focused on other things.

"I had other things to think about," Wembanyama said. "I had a responsibility towards my team and the challenge of staying dominant and helpful for the team and also staying healthy. I had many things on my mind the whole season. It was no bigger than that."

Wembanyama said he got goosebumps watching a video the Spurs prepared for him that featured clips of him playing basketball as young as 7 years old.

But after that played, Wembanyama accepted his trophy from Wright and then had his own video in which he thanked those who came before him with the Spurs, coach Gregg Popovich, his teammates, coaches, staff members, his family and eventually the fans, finishing the video with: "The future is going to be fun."

"I'm realistic, I know there's going to be videos of myself on the internet and they're going to talk about winning the award, but there's so much more to this," Wembanyama said. "To me, it's so much more to recognize each other's greatness and value.

"I mean, this is not enough. This is barely something. I want to keep the momentum going and let everybody know they are a part of the family and a part of the story. I believe in the fans, my teammates, the staff. I believe in them as much as I think they believe in me."

Next up for Wembanyama are the Summer Olympics in Paris, where he'll get to represent his home country of France on the international stage.

"This summer is special because it's pretty busy," Wembanyama said. "But yeah, I'm still going to have time to, I've had time to relax already in France a little bit with my family, and now I'm going to have time to practice and I'm going to have just a little bit of time after the Olympics, hopefully to work out before the season."

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA, NIKOLA JOKIC HEADLINE NBA AWARD FINALISTS

 The NBA unveiled the three finalists for each of its seven major individual awards for the 2023-24 regular season Sunday night, headlined by Nikola Jokic, an MVP finalist for a fourth straight season, and San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, a finalist for Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.

Jokic, whose Denver Nuggets opened the playoffs with a victory over the Los Angeles Lakers Saturday night, won the MVP in 2021 and 2022 and finished second behind the Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid last year.

Embiid and the Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo were MVP finalists alongside Jokic each of the past two seasons, but they were replaced this season by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic.

Jokic concluded the regular season averaging 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds and 9.0 assists for Denver, which finished tied atop the Western Conference with Gilgeous-Alexander's Thunder. Oklahoma City claimed the West's top playoff seed on a tiebreaker.

Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 2.0 steals this season. Doncic led the league in scoring, averaging 33.9 points, to go along with 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists for the Mavericks, who opened their first-round series against the LA Clippers with a 109-97 loss Sunday.

There were no surprises among the finalists for Rookie of the Year, with the top two picks in the 2023 draft -- Wembanyama and Charlotte Hornets forward Brandon Miller -- joined by the 2022 second overall pick, Thunder center Chet Holmgren.

Wembanyama set several records in his first season with the Spurs, averaging 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.6 blocks and 1.2 steals, while Holmgren averaged 16.5 points and 7.9 rebounds for Oklahoma City after missing last season with a foot injury. Miller averaged 17.4 points and made 184 3-pointers this season.

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, who previously won three Defensive Player of the Year awards and was a finalist from 2017 to 2022, leads this year's finalists, alongside Wembanyama and Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo.

Gobert led Minnesota to the league's best defensive rating and averaged 12.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks. Adebayo, one of the league's most versatile big men, averaged 10.4 rebounds plus a steal and a block per game, while Wembanyama became a block and steal machine as a rookie, especially after shifting to center full-time midway through the season.

The field for Most Improved Player, often one of the more complicated awards in terms of voting because there's no set criteria, includes 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey, Chicago Bulls guard Coby White and Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun.

Maxey made his first All-Star team while averaging 25.9 points and 6.2 assists. White averaged career highs of 19.1 points and 5.1 assists, and Sengun averaged 21.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists for Houston.

The Sixth Man of the Year voting, meanwhile, was led by Sacramento Kings guard Malik Monk, Timberwolves center Naz Reid and Bucks forward Bobby Portis.

For the second straight year, Oklahoma City's Mark Daigneault finished among the top three in Coach of the Year voting, joined by Orlando Magic coach Jamahl Mosley and Minnesota's Chris Finch.

Under Mosley, a young Magic team boasted one of the league's best defenses and claimed the Southeast Division crown. And Finch led Minnesota to 56 wins, second most in franchise history.

Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan is a repeat finalist for the Clutch Player of the Year award, which was created last year. He's joined by Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Gilgeous-Alexander.

The NBA will announce each of the award winners -- as well as the selections for the All-NBA, All-Defense and All-Rookie teams -- over the next couple of weeks.

Monk averaged 15.4 points and 5.1 assists for Sacramento before missing the final weeks of the season with a knee injury. Reid has developed into one of the top-scoring bench bigs in the league, averaging 13.5 points and 5.2 rebounds -- both career highs -- to help Minnesota clinch the third seed in the Western Conference.

Portis averaged 13.8 points and 7.4 rebounds for the Bucks and will step into a much bigger role in Milwaukee's first-round series against the Indiana Pacers, with Antetokounmpo sidelined at the start because of a calf injury.

- Tim Bontemps, ESPN

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