Report: Sonics' Durant to receive rookie award

• Published April 30, 2008

Olympian news services

Seattle SuperSonics forward Kevin Durant will be named the NBA's rookie of the year, according to a report in The Seattle Times.

Durant would become the first Sonics player to win the award. The official announcement is scheduled for Thursday.

The Times cited two anonymous league sources who said Durant beat second-place finisher Al Horford of Atlanta for the award.

Durant, a 19-year-old shooting guard, won five of the six Western Conference rookie of the month honors.

Durant led all rookies in scoring at 20.3 points per game, the highest for a rookie since LeBron James averaged 20.9 in 2003-04.

In 80 games, Durant was first among rookies in assists (192), free-throw percentage (87.3), free throws attempted (448), free throws made (391) and minutes per game (34.6). He was second in steals (78) and third in field-goal percentage (43.0), blocks per game (.84) and 3-point field goals made (59).