No. 1 pick Paolo Banchero reacts to winning Rookie of the Year

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Long before becoming the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft by the Orlando Magic, Paolo Banchero had a long list of goals he wanted to achieve.

He was able to cross one of them off that list this week.

Banchero was named the 2022-23 NBA Rookie of the Year on Tuesday, receiving 98 out of 100 first-place votes from a global panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. He finished with 494 out of a possible 500 points in the final voting, topping the 241 points that Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams received.

Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler finished third with 114 points.

Banchero was viewed as the front-runner to win after averaging 20 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 72 games. He led the rookie class in a number of categories, including scoring, field goals per game (6.7), free throws (5.5) and 30-point games (6). He is the sixth rookie in the last 50 seasons to average at least 20 points, six rebounds and three assists.

“This award means a lot to me,” Banchero said Wednesday at a press conference at the team practice facility. “Toward the end of my high school career, I started to kind of put my eye on the NBA and I made a lot of goals I wanted to achieve and Rookie of the Year was one of them. Coming in and getting drafted, it was kind of the first one I had on my list. I tried not to think about it, just tried to play every game to win and put the team and winning first and everything I knew was going to take care of itself.”

Banchero became the third rookie in team history to be honored as Rookie of the Year, joining Shaquille O’Neal (1992-93) and his agent, Mike Miller (2000-01). O’Neal announced Banchero as the winner of the award Tuesday on “NBA on TNT” and Miller was among those on hand to celebrate the accomplishment by his client.

The two became close in recent memory and Banchero eventually settled on Miller and LIFT Sports Management to represent him. Miller also serves as a trainer for Banchero after spending 17 years in the league, including three seasons in Orlando.

Story continues

Miller was proud of Banchero after seeing him work on and off the court.

He just…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/no-1-pick-paolo-banchero-214820550.html?src=rss

Author : Rookie Wire

Publish date : 2023-04-26 21:48:20

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