The 2022-23 NBA regular season has come to a close, which means the league will be announcing this year’s winners for various awards soon. With a memorable MVP battle this season, no one is certain as to who will take home the honors. However, one winner that almost everyone agrees on is the Rookie of the Year award. Unfortunately, the Orlando Magic rookie Paolo Banchero’s chances of following in the footsteps of the likes of Damian Lillard, Blake Griffin, and others have already been taken away.

There have only been five players in NBA history who have won the Rookie of the Year award unanimously. Moreover, unanimous winners are a rare occurrence. Sometimes, all it takes is one person to take away the chance of creating history. Shaquille O’Neal too could’ve won an award unanimously back in 2000, but unfortunately missed it by one vote. 

Paolo Banchero following in the footsteps of Shaquille O’Neal

Orlando Magic rookie Paolo Banchero was the number one overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft. The 6’10 small forward had a stellar 2022-23 season with the Magic, averaging 20.0 PPG, 6.9 RPG, and 3.7 APG on a true 52.9% shooting percentage.

Recently, Banchero made an appearance on the “The Ryen Russillo” podcast. While on the show, he revealed that he suffered from some nerve damage in his neck during the month of February, which would, in turn, explain the drop in performance for that month.

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In a recently released report, votes for the Rookie of the Year were tallied and everyone voted for Paolo Banchero except for one person so far. Utah Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen voted for Jazz rookie, Walker Kessler.

So, in the list of names of voters released, Larsen managed to ruin the chances of Banchero being the sixth unanimous Rookie of the Year. There may be others who might not vote for Banchero, but Andy Larsen’s vote has already made sure of it.

Unfortunately, the same thing happened to Shaquille O’Neal for the MVP award back in 2000 as well. Shaq missed out on being the first unanimous Most Valuable Player by one vote as that went to Philadelphia 76ers legend, Allen Iverson. The four-time NBA champion is still enraged over that as he could’ve created history. That honor instead went to Stephen Curry in 2016, when he became the first-ever unanimous MVP.

Paolo with a historical year

The vote by Andy Larsen seems to be biased on paper. Nonetheless, he made sure to give a detailed explanation as to why he went with Walker Kessler instead of Paolo Banchero. He revealed that he is an analytically oriented voter and that all the advanced stats favor the Jazz Center. 

As for Paolo Banchero, he will still likely win the Rookie of the Year award given how he has played in his first year in the league. Banchero had a total of 20 40-point games this season.

The last rookie to do so was Los Angeles Lakers star and the all-time leader in points, LeBron James. So, there is no doubt that Magic Rookie more than deserves this award. 

Watch This Story – Paolo Banchero, Chet Holgrem, Jabari Smith Jr., and other top rookie prospects for NBA Draft 2022

What are your thoughts on Banchero missing out on being a unanimous ROTY? Let us know in the comments.