As intense as the race for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) title this season is the choice of the Rookie of the Year (ROY) award. With only a month to go before the regular season ends, two prominent names are being mentioned in the same breath as possible winner of the annual newbies plum. O.J. Mayo of the Memphis Grizzlies and Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls.
Mayo, the ROY favorite early in the season, is currently posting averages of 18.4 points per game, 3.9 caroms an outing, 3.0 assists and 37.53 minutes of action per game in 69 outings so far. Despite his glowing individual performances, Mayo can not help the Grizzlies out of the cellar in the Southwest Division with a lowly 17-52 win-loss mark. The 21 year old Huntington, West Virginia native was chosen as the 3rd pick over-all by the Minnesota Timberwolves during the 2008 NBA rookie draft. However, he was traded by the T-Wolves during the off-season to the Grizzlies for another rookie in Kevin Love of UCLA, the 5th pick over-all.
Rose, the number one pick over-all in the 2008 NBA rookie draft, had so far led the Bulls to a 32-38 card and a possible post-season play. The 20 year old Chicago native is submitting norms of 16.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 6.1 apg and 36.47 mpg in 70 games for the Bulls.
Never had the ROY race as close as this since the 2004 ROY battle among LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade in which King James won. The pundits are equally divided in their choice between Rose and Mayo. Maybe a co-ROY awardees awaits the two just like what Jason Kidd and Grant Hill did in 1995. Well, that would not be bad after all. Both equally deserves the title.
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