Cooper Flagg edges former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel for NBA Rookie of the Year

The 19-year-old Flagg and Knueppel were first and second in rookie scoring, the first former college teammates to do that since UConn stars Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon in 2004-05. Philadelphia's VJ Edgecombe was the other finalist.

Flagg and Knueppel traded places as betting favorites during the season, but Flagg's 96-point outburst over two games on the second-to-last weekend might have tipped the scales. Flagg was the favorite going into the announcement.

The first of those games was Flagg's 51-point showing against Orlando, the first time a teenager has scored 50 in the NBA. He broke his own record for a teenager of 49 from earlier in the season against Knueppel and the Hornets.

“I see the games every night. I can check the box scores,” Flagg said when asked how close of an eye he kept on Knueppel during the season. “I think also I was watching Kon just because that’s one of my brothers. We had such a good connection, and we’re gonna be there for each other for the rest of our lives. I was watching him as a fan as well, but there was obviously that competition at the same time.”

It was, as expected, one of the closest votes in Rookie of the Year history.

Only 26 points separated Flagg and Knueppel in a balloting where 100 reporters and broadcasters who cover the league ranked their top three rookies, with five points going to first place, three to second and one to third.

There were three years where the award was shared because of a tie in the voting, and two of those included Duke players Elton Brand and Grant Hill. Brand and Steve Francis tied for the award in 2000, Hill and Jason Kidd — Flagg’s current coach — tied in 1995 and Dave Cowens and Geoff Petrie tied in 1971.

The 2022 award, which utilized the current voting format, saw Scottie Barnes edge Evan Mobley by 15 points.

And in 1981, under a different format, Darrell Griffith edged Kelvin Ransey by one vote — 19-18. Only 69 ballots were cast that year, with Larry Smith (14) finishing third and Kevin McHale (11) fourth.

Knueppel, who was a one-and-done at Duke just like Flagg but turned 20 before his NBA career started, became the first rookie to lead the league in 3-pointers 273.

He averaged 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists, while shooting 42.5% from 3-point range to join Larry Bird and Paul Pierce as only the only NBA rookies to average 15 points and five rebounds per game while shooting better than 40% from beyond the arc.

Behind Knueppel, Charlotte won 44 games — a 25-game improvement over last season — before being eliminated by Orlando in the play-in tournament.

The rookie award was the sixth to be announced by the NBA since the end of the regular season. The others:

— San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama was the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year.

— Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got 96 of a possible 100 first-place votes to win the Clutch Player of the Year award.

— San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson won Sixth Man of the Year.

— Boston’s Derrick White won the Sportsmanship Award. That award, unlike most others, is selected solely by active players.

— Atlanta’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker won Most Improved Player.

Other award announcements yet to be scheduled include MVP (either Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver’s Nikola Jokic) and Coach of the Year (either Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson or Boston’s Joe Mazzulla).

The NBA will announce the Executive of the Year, the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year and the Hustle Award winner later this week.

AP Sports Writer Steve Reed and AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.

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