The Rookie of the Year award has been given to players who excel in their first year of the NBA, from LeBron James, Derrick Rose, Anthony Towns, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Larry Bird and lots more great players.
But never have we seen a second round draft pick win this prestigious award, until Malcolm Brogdon, of the Milwaukee Bucks, broke history to become the first ever second round draft pick to win the award.
College days and family background
Malcolm Brogdon played for the Virginia Cavaliers, during the four years stay in college he was named consensus second-team All-American and first-team All-ACC, a finalist for the Naismith Award and ACC-Co Defensive Player of the Year.
In his senior year, he averaged 18.2 points per game, 0.9 steals per game, 2.8 assists per game, 4.2 rebounds per game and 0.2 blocks per game while shooting 47.4% from the field and 41.1% from beyond the arc.
A couple of months when he was already playing in the NBA Malcolm Brogdon was honored by his college by retiring his jersey number (fifteen). With those numbers, we would think that Brogdon came from a family of basketball players or at least an athletic family but surprisingly, his father and his older brother is a lawyer, and his mother is a dean of science and math.
Rookie year for the Milwaukee Bucks
In the 2016 NBA draft, Malcolm Brogdon was selected 36th overall pick and subsequently, signed with the Bucks.
His first game in the NBA was against the Charlotte Hornets, he played twenty minutes and garnering eight points, five rebounds, and five assists.
During the season he would give the Bucks a huge lift, the Bucks had a net rating of plus 2.7 when he was on the floor and a minus 1.7 when he is not on the floor. He would later on average 10.2 points per game, 0.2 blocks per game, 1.1 steals per game, 4.2 assists per game, and 2.8 rebounds per game while shooting 45.7% from the field and 40.4% from beyond the arc.
His stats were not off the charts but as a second rounder, and the impact he gave to the Milwaukee Bucks gave put him in serious contention to be the Rookie of the Year. Milwaukee Bucks head coach, Jason Kidd, said in an interview that Brogdon deserves to be named the Rookie of the Year because of the impact he has made despite being drafted in the second-round.
Malcolm Brogdon has shown the league just what he is capable of and as long as he continues his incredible work ethic and not get caught up with the fame, then he will inevitably evolve into a fantastic NBA player in the near future.
