INDEPENDENCE, OHIO (AP) - Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving is the NBA’s Rookie of the Year, winning the award with the same ease as he dribbled past defenders this season.
Irving received 117 of 120 possible first-place votes from a nationwide media panel of 120 writers and broadcasters. Irving finished with 592 points, way ahead of Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio (170) and Denver’s Kenneth Faried (129), who was third.
Faried, San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard and New York’s Iman Shumpert received the other first-place votes, denying Irving’s bid to become the fourth player to win the award unanimously.
The 20-year-old is the second Cleveland player to win the award, joining LeBron James in 2004.
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