Bulls' Rose takes home Rookie of Year Award

NEW YORK -- Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls is the recipient of the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as the 2008-09 T-Mobile NBA Rookie of the Year, the NBA announced today.

Rose received 111 first-place votes (574 points) from a panel of 120 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Memphis' O.J. Mayo finished second with 246 points and New Jersey's Brook Lopez finished third with 127 points. Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote.

Selected with the first overall pick in the NBA Draft 2008, Rose led first-year players in assists (6.3 apg) and was second among rookies in scoring (16.8 ppg), to go along with 3.9 rebounds in 37.0 minutes. Rose shot .475 from the field and .788 from the free throw line. He started 80 of 81 games (missed one game due to injury on March 24), and finished the season in the top three in several categories all-time among Bulls rookies, including total points (3rd, 1,361), scoring (3rd, 16.8 ppg) and assists (3rd, 6.3 apg).

A three-time T-Mobile Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month selection (Nov., Dec., March), Rose scored in double digits 71 times including 32 games of at least 20 points. Rose represented Chicago at All-Star Saturday Night in Phoenix, becoming the first rookie to win the PlayStation® Skills Challenge with a time of 35.3 seconds. A participant in the 2009 T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam, Rose finished with four points and a team-high seven assists. Rose is the third Chicago rookie to win the award and the first since Elton Brand in 1999-00 (co-winner with Houston's Steve Francis).

Throughout the 2008-09 season, for every point scored by the T-Mobile Rookie of the Month, T-Mobile USA pledged to donate $20 per point scored during the month the player won the award to better the various youth communities in Phoenix, the Host City of NBA All-Star 2009. T-Mobile will donate a total of $60,340, with $16,220 coming from the 811 points scored by Rose alone during the three months he won T-Mobile Rookie of the Month. The donation is part of the overall T-Mobile Rookie Program and builds on T-Mobile's strong appeal to the nation's youth as the official wireless partner of the NBA. Other highlights of T-Mobile's partnership with the NBA include the T-Mobile Rookie of the Year, T-Mobile Rookie of the Month Awards, and the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam, an All-Star competition between NBA rookies and second-year players. During NBA All-Star 2009, T-Mobile and NBA Cares hosted more than 3,800 local students from five school districts in Phoenix, to sit in the lower bowl of the arena to watch this year's T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam on Friday, February 13.

The Eddie Gottlieb Trophy is named in honor of Eddie Gottlieb, one of the NBA's founders who coached the Philadelphia Warriors to the NBA championship in 1946-47.

Below are the voting results for the 2008-09 T-Mobile NBA Rookie of the Year Award and the all-time list of winners: