Despite recent calls to change the rules for NBA Rookie of the Year Award eligibility, that won’t happen in the near future. This was confirmed by NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who told ESPN that the league hasn’t even discussed something like that.
“There are no plans to change it,” – said Silver. “We’ve had that rule in place for some time. If we were to change the rule, we wouldn’t do it midseason. We would at least wait until the winner of the award is announced. But there have not been any discussions about changing the rule.”
This year’s race for NBA Rookie of the Year between Philadelphia 76ers’ Ben Simmons and Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell has been causing much controversy in the past months. While both players had an amazing season, there are many people who believe that Simmons shouldn’t be in the running for the award at all and that Mitchell deserves the award more.
This is due to a fact that Ben Simmons was drafted in 2016 and sat out one season because of an injury while Donovan Mitchell is a “true rookie” who didn’t have the same opportunity to get accustomed to NBA life like Simmons but still managed to play on a high level. This is why there were those who demanded that the NBA Rookie of the Year Award rules change making “true rookies” only ones who are eligible for the role.
Ben Simmons, who was made the first overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft by Philadelphia 76ers, lead his team to a third seed in the Eastern Conference in 2017-18 and averaged 15.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game in the regular season. Donovan Mitchell, who was selected 12th overall by Utah Jazz in 2017 NBA Draft, lead his team to fifth seed in the Western Conference by averaging 20.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.
