NEW YORK – The Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving, the 2011-12 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Ricky Rubio headline the 2011-12 NBA All-Rookie First Team, the NBA announced today. Irving was the lone unanimous selection.

Joining Irving (58 points) and Rubio (49 points) on the NBA All-Rookie First Team are Denver’s Kenneth Faried (46 points), Golden State’s Klay Thompson (43 points), New York’s Iman Shumpert (40 points), San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard (40 points) and Detroit’s Brandon Knight (40 points).

Irving, the league’s top-scoring rookie, was named Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for games played in December/January, February and March. He finished the season with averages of 18.5 points, 5.4 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals, becoming one of only six rookies in league history to average at least 18.0 points, 5.0 assists, and 1.0 steal while shooting at least .450 from the field (Alvan Adams, Grant Hill, Tyreke Evans, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan).

Rubio, the Western Conference Rookie of the Month for games played in December/January, appeared in 41 games during an injury-shortened debut season, averaging 10.6 points, a rookie-best 8.2 assists, and 4.2 rebounds. He also led rookies with 2.2 steals.

Faried averaged 10.2 points, a rookie-best 7.7 rebounds and 1.0 block for Denver, garnering Western Conference Player of the Month honors for games played in April. His .586 field goal percentage paced first-year players.

Thompson averaged 12.5 points while shooting a rookie-best .414 from three-point range, 2.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists.

Shumpert, Leonard and Knight tied for the fifth spot on the All-Rookie First Team. Shumpert averaged 9.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 steals. Leonard posted 7.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.1 assists. Knight tallied averages of 12.8 points, 3.8 assists and 3.2 rebounds.

The NBA All-Rookie Second Team consists of Houston’s Chandler Parsons (33 points), Sacramento’s Isaiah Thomas (27 points), New Jersey’s MarShon Brooks (18 points), Minnesota’s Derrick Williams (16 points) and Cleveland’s Tristan Thompson (16 points).

The voting panel consisted of the NBA’s 30 head coaches, who were asked to select five players for the first team and five players for the second team, regardless of position. Coaches were not permitted to vote for players on their own team. Two points were awarded for first team votes and one for second team votes.

Attached are the results of the balloting for the 2011-12 NBA All-Rookie teams. The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP.

2011-12 NBA ALL-ROOKIE FIRST TEAM

          Player                          Team                  First (2 pt)       Second (1 Pt)   Total

Kyrie Irving                  Cleveland                           29                    –                       58

Ricky Rubio                 Minnesota                           21                    7                      49

Kenneth Faried             Denver                               19                    8                      46

Klay Thompson            Golden State                     16                    11                    43

Iman Shumpert            New York                          15                    10                    40

Kawhi Leonard             San Antonio                     14                    12                    40

Brandon Knight            Detroit                               13                    14                    40

 

2011-12 NBA ALL-ROOKIE SECOND TEAM

                     Player                          Team                  First (2 pt)       Second (1 Pt)   Total

Chandler Parsons                 Houston                          10                    13                    33

Isaiah Thomas                      Sacramento                      5                      17                    27

MarShon Brooks                  New Jersey                       3                      12                    18

Derrick Williams                 Minnesota                          2                      12                    16

Tristan Thompson              Cleveland                           2                      12                    16

 

Other players receiving votes, with point totals (first place votes in parentheses):
Markieff Morris, Phoenix, 7 (1); Kemba Walker, Charlotte 7; Alec Burks, Utah 2; Norris Cole, Miami 2; Bismack Biyombo, Charlotte 2; Enes Kanter, Utah 1; Greg Stiemsma, Boston 1; Gustavo Ayon, New Orleans 1; Nikola Vucevic, Philadelphia 1.