The Olympian

Durant chosen as NBA's top rookie

By Sports Network | The Sports Network • Published May 01, 2008

Seattle SuperSonics swingman Kevin Durant has been selected as the NBA's Rookie of the Year.

Durant was a runaway winner, receiving 90 first-place votes and a total of 545 points from a panel of 125 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.

Atlanta's Al Horford finished a distant second in the balloting with 30 first- place votes and a total of 390 points. Houston's Luis Scola was the only other player to garner first-place votes, with five, and was third overall in the voting with 146 points.

Durant led all first-year players in scoring, despite the Sonics posting a franchise-worst record of 20-62 this past season. He became the first Seattle player to capture the rookie award.

After a stellar freshman year at Texas, Durant was selected with the second overall pick of the 2007 NBA Draft. In 80 games this past season, he averaged 20.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists.

His scoring average was 7.6 points higher than any other rookie. He led the Sonics in scoring 47 times and was selected as the Western Conference's Rookie of the Month five times.