Ja Morant was one vote away from being named unanimous Rookie of the Year, and he now knows the identity of the media member who didn’t back him.
The NBA released the full balloting for awards on Saturday. As had been previously announced, Morant received 99 of 100 first-place votes in Rookie of the Year balloting. With the release of the ballots, however, we learned that the only voter who didn’t back Morant was Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, who voted for Zion Williamson with Morant in second.
Morant had a response for Cowley, and it was a bit more polite than you might expect.
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) September 19, 2020
appreciate you i’m not gonna do too much , ima let everybody else do dat . i just wanna know why lol
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) September 19, 2020
Morant is right to ask. He had an excellent rookie season, putting up 17.8 points and 7.3 assists per game in 67 games. Williamson was excellent when he played, but he only appeared in 24 games.
The Memphis Grizzlies guard had wanted to know who didn’t vote for him so he could thank the voter for the motivation. He’s essentially kept his word. It can’t be easy to do, as Morant easily could have gotten angry. Instead, he’s taken the high road.
