Stephon Castle Wins NBA Rookie of the Year Award

Stephon Castle Wins NBA Rookie of the Year Award

San Antonio Spurs rookie guard Stephon Castle was named the 2024-25 NBA Rookie of the Year award winner on Tuesday night, becoming the 2nd consecutive Spurs player to capture the honour following last year’s winner Victor Wembanyama.

Castle cruised to victory on the ballots, earning 92 out of a possible 100 first place votes. Overall, he finished with 482 points, followed by Atlanta’s Zaccharie Risacher (245), and Memphis forward Jaylen Wells (123).

“Coming in with all the confidence that I had in myself as a player, that was definitely a goal of mine from Day 1,” Castle said on TNT as the results were announced. “I’m just happy I was able to execute it.”

San Antonio now boasts 4 players who have earned Rookie of the Year honours. Castle joins Wembanyama, David Robinson (1989-90), and Tim Duncan (1997-98). The 20 year old averaged 14.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 0.91 steals in 26.7 minutes per night across 81 games. He led all rookies in points per game, ranked fourth in assists per game and finished sixth in steals per game. Castle also had the most total points (1,190), steals (74) and free throws made (249) amongst first-year players.

Also receiving votes for the award were Alex Sarr (34 points), Zach Edey (10), Kel’el Ware (4), Matas Buzelis (1), and Jared McCain (1).

San Antonio will look to go for the ROTY three-peat this summer as they’ll boast 2 first round selections on draft day. The Spurs will have their own, and Atlanta’s 1st rounder courtesy of the ill fated Dejounte Murray trade.

The 2025 NBA Draft lottery takes place on May 12th, with the draft itself happening a little over a month later on Wednesday, June 25th.

Photo: Katie Haugland. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.