Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving was officially named the NBA's Rookie of the Year on Tuesday morning, one day after news of the award began to circulate through unofficial reports.
Irving, the top pick in last year's NBA draft after an injury-shortened freshman season at Duke University, accepted the award at a press conference at the Cavaliers' practice facility in Independence, Ohio.
"It was a goal of mine," Irving said of winning the award. "Kept it on the back burner. I knew as long as we won games and beat great teams, it would come."
The 20-year-old Irving becomes just the second player in Cavaliers history to win the award, joining 2004 winner LeBron James. He led all qualified rookies in scoring average (18.5 PPG), three-point shooting percentage (39.9), free-throw percentage (87.2) and efficiency (17.7 PER). His 5.4 assists per game were second only to Ricky Rubio of the Timberwolves, who finished second to Irving in the voting.
Irving received 117 of 120 possible first-place votes. Rubio, who was drafted in 2009 but played two more seasons in Spain before joining Minnesota, received 70 second-place votes and 23 third-place votes.
The top five vote-getters were Irving, Rubio, Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried, Spurs swingman Kawhi Leonard and Knicks guard Iman Shumpert. The latter three all play for teams that qualified for the NBA Playoffs, and each received one of the three first-place votes that didn't go to Irving. The Cavaliers finished 21-45 in the lockout-shortened regular season, fifth in the Central Division. Still, the team won two more games than it did in 2010-11, despite playing 16 fewer games.
Irving was joined at the press conference by his father, whom he jokingly compared to Cavs head coach Byron Scott. "They have similarities," Irving said. "They're both bald, they both wear nice suits, and nice shoes."
The Cavaliers guard made sure to make his true feelings known, however.
"I love you man," Irving told his father. "We're going to bring this back home, put it on the mantle and put flashing lights on it so it shines throughout the house. I'm living my dream. Without you, I don'tknow where I'd be."
One would expect that Irving's dream will include more wins - and fewer last-place finishes - as time goes along, but he expressed confidence that that team success will come in due course.
"I know what we're building here is something special," Irving said, "and we're in it for the long haul."
