Philadelphia 76ers rookies Joel Embiid and Dario Saric are both good enough to be the sole Rookie of the Year. Still, there’s a chance they could share.
As the end of the season draws near, the discussion regarding the yearly awards in the NBA begins to heat up. While the Philadelphia 76ers likely won’t have anyone representing the team in most of the main categories — Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man Award, or Most Improved Player Award — they will have a decent showing in the Rookie of the Year voting.
Dario Saric and Joel Embiid are both players on the Sixers who are in line to receive the award. By most people’s estimations, they are the top two candidates. They both have had absolutely stellar seasons in different ways.
The talk of the town is all about which one will win. And there’s reason for both of them. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. While it would be a hard feat, the pair could actually share the honors.
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It hasn’t happened since the 1999-2000 season, but the Rookie of the Year Award is one that can be shared if the final amount of points received by the voting committee is an equal amount. In 2000, Elton Brand and Steve Francis shared the honors.
Grant Hill and Jason Kidd shared the award in 1995. The award was also shared in 1971 by Dave Cowens and Geoff Petrie.
Aside from those three examples, though, the honors have not been shared by any pair of rookies.
Never have the award winners been on the same team, usually because youthful talent is often distributed throughout the league. The Sixers reasonably could be the first team in NBA history to have two Rookie of the Year winners in the same season.
Even being in that type of conversation speaks to the incredibly bright future the Sixers have with their youth.
The way the voting works is there are several members of the media who are given ballots. They are asked to rank their top three rookies from the season. For every first place vote a player receives, they get 5 points. For every second place vote, 3 points, and for every third place vote, 1 point.
Last season, Karl-Anthony Towns was the unanimous Rookie of the Year, receiving all of the media’s first place votes.
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This season — although if Embiid stayed healthy, it would be another story — there will likely not be a unanimous decision. That said, Saric and Embiid could end up with the same amount of votes, in which case they will share the honors.
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All things considered, even if the pair doesn’t get to share the award, it’s almost certain that the award will come through Philadelphia.