Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LOS ANGELES — Rudy Gobert stands tall at the top of his profession.
Gobert was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year after a phenomenal season in the paint for the Utah Jazz. Gobert missed 26 games due to injury, but as soon as Gobert returned, the Jazz catapulted to a 30-8 finish to the season and back into the playoffs. Philadelphia's Joel Embiid and New Orleans' Anthony Davis finished behind Gobert in second and third place.
That's because the Jazz had the league's best defensive rating (allowing just 97.5 points per 100 possessions) and outscoring teams by a bigger margin than any other team in the league. Opponents shot just 43 percent against the Jazz in that second half of the season.
Gobert thanked his mother, head coach Quin Snyder, and the Jazz organization and fans in a short speech after winning the award.
"I want to thank Quin for believing in me since he got here," Gobert noted. "The owners, the staff, the city, for embracing me and making it feel like home. I'm very excited for the future, and proud to be representing the Jazz."
As he expected, Donovan Mitchell was not named the 2018 NBA Rookie of the Year, however.
Mitchell, though, came up just short in the league's Rookie of the Year race, taking second place to Philadelphia's Ben Simmons. Mitchell's offense led the Jazz throughout the season, averaging 20.5 points in the highest-scoring rookie season since Blake Griffin in 2010-11. However, Simmons' near-triple-double averages of 15.8 points, 8.2 assists, and 8.1 rebounds per game impressed voters, who didn't consider either rookie phenomenon's playoff performances in their voting.
"Do I want to win it? Yes. Do I think I will? Probably not," Mitchell told the Sixers' J.J. Redick on his podcast last week. "But I won the award from my peers, so I don't care what analysts think, they're not the ones who have to guard me."
Mitchell's fans consistently pointed at Simmons' "redshirt" status as having helped the Australian rookie, having sat out a year due to injury in 2016-17. But the NBA told voters that both Mitchell and Simmons were eligible for the award and to consider who had the best season this year. Boston's Jayson Tatum came in third.
"They had excellent, amazing, tremendous seasons, and what they were able to accomplish was great," Simmons told media after winning the award. "I mean, if I had played last year, one of them would have had it."
Likewise, Jazz head coach Quin Snyder didn't win the NBA's Coach of the Year award, finishing second to Toronto's Dwane Casey. Snyder deserves credit for Utah's second-half turnaround, as well as the player development behind the success of Mitchell, Gobert, Ricky Rubio, Joe Ingles, and others. But voters felt Casey deserved the award for winning more games during the regular season, though Casey was fired after the season by the Raptors.
"So many guys in this league do an unreal job," Snyder said when he learned he was nominated in April. "More than anything, it’s an honor to be thrown into that group of coaches."
Though Gobert was the Jazz's only winner on the night, he recognized the help he received from Mitchell, Snyder, and the Jazz's staff. When Gobert was asked after winning the award if he'd consider joining a "superteam" to achieve his NBA goals, Gobert said, "I mean, I take so much pride into what we are building right now as a team that to me, it means more than just go and change to another team or ride somebody's boat.
"I think what's happening, what we're building means more than anything. I truly believe we're going to win a championship in the future, but it would mean so much more the way — all the things we've been through as a group, as an organization that it has more value in that for me."
James Harden won the league's Most Valuable Player award.
The NBA's annual awards were voted on by a media panel featuring 100 representatives from broadcasters, writers, and radio personnel from national and international outlets. No team-employed voters were allowed, and the voting took place after the regular season but before the beginning of the playoffs. The awards were announced on the NBA's annual awards show on TNT.
