Karl-Anthony Towns Unanimously Named Rookie of the Year

Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves becomes the fifth player to receive the NBA Rookie of the Year award by unanimous vote, joining Ralph Sampson (1984), David Robinson (1990), Blake Griffin (2011), and Damian Lillard (2013). He received every first place vote and nearly doubled the point total of the closest runner-up.

T-Wolves @KarlTowns is the unanimous 2016 NBA Rookie of the Year. The following is the voting results: pic.twitter.com/g1YFeSi2p6

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) May 16, 2016

Towns averaged 18.3 points and 10.4 rebounds per game for the Timberwolves. The 7-footer does a little bit of everything. He can hit the three, crash the boards, defend the paint, score in bunches, and he is not even a liability from the free throw line. He will be a pillar of the Timberwolves’ future success, along with teammate Andrew Wiggins, who was named Rookie of the Year last season.

Towns and Wiggins are still just 20 and 21 years old, respectively. The team is to be coached by former Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau in the season to come, turning this pair into a terrifying trifecta. With a shot at another top-5 pick in June, the Timberwolves could be a force to be reckoned with rather quickly, and for an extended period of time. Towns’ accolade is the first of many that the big man will enjoy through the course of his NBA career.