Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

San Antonio’s Stephen Castle Wins NBA Rookie of the Year Award, Spurs Take Honour for Second Straight Year

Castle is the fifth rookie in San Antonio history to score more than 1,000 points.

Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

San Antonio Spurs’ Stephon Castle has been named the NBA Rookie Of The Year for his outstanding performance in season 2024-25. Castle is the second straight player from the Spurs to win top rookie honors as Victor Wembanyama was the winner last season. Stephon Castle had no competition from runner-up Zaccharie Risacher of the Hawks as the Spurs guard got 92 first-place votes.

Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaylen Wells finished third in the voting. Risacher got five first-place votes, and Wells got three. The Wizards’ Alex Sarr ranked fourth in the voting, followed by the Grizzlies’ Zach Edey in fifth and the Heat’ Kel’el Ware in sixth. Philadelphia’s Jared McCain and Chicago’s Matas Buzelis tied for seventh place in the voting.

The 2024-25 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year is… Stephon Castle!#NBAAwards | #KiaROY | @Kia pic.twitter.com/Mb53JSAFyA
— NBA (@NBA) April 29, 2025

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Stephen Castle was Instrumental for Spurs amid Wembanyama’s Season-Ending Injury

Castle is the fifth rookie in San Antonio history to score more than 1,000 points. He is the fourth player to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award with the Spurs, joining David Robinson (1989-90), Tim Duncan (1997-98) and last season’s recipient, Victor Wembanyama (2023-24).

Castle, who also won the Rising Stars MVP honor in February, wanted to be ‘Rookie Of The Year’ and the Spurs guard was happy after completing his desire on Tuesday.

“Coming in with all the confidence that I had in myself as a player, that was definitely a goal of mine from Day 1,” Castle spoke to TNT, which broadcast the unveiling of the results. “I’m just happy I was able to execute it.”

#KiaROY Stephon Castle gave a shoutout to his high school coach when he talked with the fellas 🫶👏 pic.twitter.com/UEwrotojTD
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 29, 2025

It happened for the second time in more than a century when a franchise won back-to-back top-rookie honor. Previously, Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns were named rookies of the year in 2015 and 2016, respectively. In 1973 and 1974, Bob McAdoo and Ernie DiGregorio won the NBA Rookie Of The Year award for the Buffalo Braves.

Castle’ top-rookie honor also made his teammate, Wembanyama, happy. The Frenchman paid tribute to Castle’s glory. “Hustle, heart & just pure talent … all year long, you showed why you deserved this title !! So proud of you,” Wembanyama shared on X shortly after the results were announced on TNT.

“I get so excited watching him play,” said Chris Paul, Castle’s teammate. “The first thing that I want to see in a teammate or anybody is how competitive they are. That’ll take you further than talent any day. And I saw immediately was that he was competitive. I was like, ‘OK, cool. This is going to be easy.’”

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Castle has been an instrumental player for the Spurs. He led all the rookies in points (1,190) and steals (74). Memphis’ Jaylen Wells led all rookies in games started (74) and 3-pointers made (138).

Atlanta’s Risacher could have set an NBA record for the first instance of international players winning the top-rookie award in consecutive years since Australia’s Ben Simmons and Slovenia’s Luka Doncic in 2018 and 2019. However, he missed out by a heavy margin. On the other hand, if Well was the winner, Memphis would have won a rookie honour for the first time since Ja Morant in 2020.

Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

NBA Rookie of the Year

San Antonio Spurs

Stephen Castle

Victor Wembanyama

Gulshan Sharma

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soccer

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A native of Jaipur, Rajasthan, journalist, and a complete soccer and basketball fan, he found the huge interest with basketball by watching videos of Allen Iverson and Tony Parker, but fell head over heels in love with the sport during the Warriors’ championship era (2015-2018). A sports game addict since his late PS1, he’s also passionate about the Eagles, Inter Miami and the Fever. He’s fortunate to have seen all his favorite teams win championships. He also has a special love for cricket and football (soccer), where he is a fan of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Barcelona.