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Michael Voepel, ESPN Senior Author
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark was a near-unanimous choose for WNBA Rookie of the Yr, the league introduced Thursday.
Clark, the No. 1 draft choose in April, received 66 of 67 votes from a nationwide media panel. The opposite vote went to the Chicago Sky‘s Angel Reese, who was the No. 7 choose within the draft.
Fever gamers have gained the award in back-to-back seasons; Indiana ahead/middle Aliyah Boston gained the glory final 12 months after she was additionally the No. 1 draft choose. Clark and Boston helped lead the Fever to their first playoff look since 2016 earlier than they have been swept within the first spherical by the Connecticut Sun.
“I’m extremely honored to be named Rookie of the Yr, however greater than that, I’m grateful to everybody that supported me all through this previous season — my household and pals, my teammates, the Fever group and everybody that cheered us on all season. I’m so pleased with what we achieved and so excited for what the long run holds,” Clark mentioned in an announcement.
Clark was joined on the WNBA All-Rookie Staff by Reese, Sky middle Kamilla Cardoso, the Los Angeles Sparks’ Rickea Jackson and the New York Liberty‘s Leonie Fiebich.
Clark had a record-breaking first WNBA season that adopted her history-making school profession at Iowa, the place she grew to become the all-time main scorer in Division I basketball, males’s or ladies’s.
She began all 40 regular-season video games for the Fever, who went 20-20 and completed sixth within the league. She averaged 19.2 factors, a WNBA-best 8.4 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 35.4 minutes per sport. She led all rookies in every of these classes besides rebounding, during which she was third. Reese led the WNBA in rebounding common at 13.1.
Together with main the league in assists, Clark was first in 3-pointers (122) and second in minutes per sport and free throw share (90.6). She was seventh general in scoring.
Her 337 assists set a WNBA single-season file, and she or he had a single-game file of 19 assists in opposition to the Dallas Wings in July. She additionally set a rookie season mark with 769 factors and have become the primary WNBA rookie to file a triple-double. (She had two.)
Talking after the Fever’s 87-81 loss in Recreation 2 in opposition to the Solar, Clark mentioned she was thrilled concerning the potential she and the group have forward of them.
“The enjoyable half is I really feel like I am simply scratching the floor,” Clark mentioned. “I do know I need to assist this franchise get even higher, assist my teammates get even higher, be higher for my teammates. I do know there’s lots of room for me to proceed to enhance, so that is what excites me probably the most.”
The post Caitlin Clark wins WNBA Rookie of the Year honors appeared first on AI Earth.