HORNETS GUARDS DARREN COLLISON AND
MARCUS THORNTON EARN ALL-ROOKIE HONORS
Collison named to First Team; Thornton earns Second Team accolades
Hornets guards Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton were named to the T-Mobile NBA All-Rookie squads the NBA announced today. Collison earned First Team honors, while Thornton was named to the Second Team.
Collison and Thornton become the first duo in franchise history to both earn All-Rookie honors and, overall, are the seventh and eighth Hornets players, respectively, to do so. It marks the first time since 2005-06 that the Hornets have a player on the All-Rookie squad; Chris Paul was named Rookie of the Year and earned First Team accolades after his rookie season.
"Darren and Marcus have been great for us all season, on and off the court," General Manager Jeff Bower said. "It is great for them to be honored as All-Rookie members. They are two special basketball players and have bright futures ahead of them."
“I am honored to have been named to the First Team,” Collison said. “It’s a credit to my coaches and teammates, especially to Chris Paul for his guidance and advice this season.”
Collison and Thornton combined to average the most points per game (26.9) by a rookie duo in franchise history, as well as combining for a total of 2,003 points – the most ever by a pair of Hornets rookies.
“I am excited for this honor,” Thornton said. “I’m really lucky to get the chance to play in my home state and to have gone to a team that gave me a chance to prove myself on the court. I have to thank my teammates and the coaching staff for believing in me.”
It also marks the second time in as many seasons that two rookies from the same team were named to the All-Rookie teams as Miami’s Michael Beasley (First Team) and Mario Chalmers (Second Team) accomplished the feat following the 2008-09 campaign.
Collison (46 points) joined unanimous selections T-Mobile Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans of the Sacramento Kings, Milwaukee’s Brandon Jennings and Golden State’s Stephen Curry, as well as Chicago’s Taj Gibson (41 points) on the First Team. San Antonio’s DeJuan Blair (30 points), Oklahoma City’s James Harden (22 points), Minnesota’s Jonny Flynn (22 points) and Detroit’s Jonas Jerebko (22 points) joined Thornton (31 points) on the Second Team.
Collison, who finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting, provided steady point guard play for the Hornets in place of injured incumbent Paul, ranking among the top 10 for rookies in scoring (sixth – 12.4 ppg), assists (T-third – 5.7 apg) and steals (sixth – 1.03 spg). Collison was named the T-Mobile Western Conference Rookie of the Month for February. He dished out 432 assists as a rookie – the second-most in franchise history behind Paul’s 600 assists in his first season.
In 37 starts, Collison averaged 18.8 points, 9.1 assists and 3.5 rebounds and registered 14 double-doubles. He set a franchise rookie record and tied an NBA season-high with a 20-assist game and became only the seventh different Hornet to register a triple-double (18 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists 2/19 vs. Indiana). Collison registered seven-straight games with 18 points and nine assists—the third best streak ever for an NBA rookie.
Thornton, who led the Second Team honorees with 31 points, averaged 14.5 points and 2.9 rebounds per game as a rookie, recording 21 games of 20 or more points -- the first rookie not selected in the first round to do so since Dino Radja, who had 23 such games during the 1993-94 season. Among rookies, he ranked fourth in points per game (14.5), sixth in free-throw percentage (.814), eighth in minutes per game (25.6) and ninth in three-pointer field-goal percentage (.374).
The Baton Rouge, La. native set a franchise rookie record with 117 three-pointers and tied a franchise rookie mark with a 37-point performance 2/23 at Cleveland. His performance against the Cavs also tied a franchise-high for points off the bench and was the third-best performance by an NBA rookie reserve since the 1976-77 season. For the season, Thornton finished with 720 bench points – seventh best in Hornets history. Thornton also became the 200th player in NBA history to score 1,000 points as a rookie and did so in 1,771 minutes – the fastest in terms of minutes since the 2007-08 season (OKC’s Kevin Durant did so in 1,710 minutes).
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.
| 2009-10 T-MOBILE NBA ALL-ROOKIE FIRST TEAM | ||||
| Player | Team | First (2 pt) | Second (1 pt) | Total |
| Tyreke Evans | Sacramento | 29 | - | 58 |
| Brandon Jennings | Milwaukee | 29 | - | 58 |
| Stephen Curry | Golden State | 29 | - | 58 |
| Darren Collison | New Orleans | 20 | 6 | 46 |
| Taj Gibson | Chicago | 15 | 11 | 41 |
| 2009-10 T-MOBILE NBA ALL-ROOKIE SECOND TEAM | ||||
| Player | Team | First (2 pt) | Second (1 pt) | Total |
| Marcus Thornton | New Orleans | 6 | 19 | 31 |
| DeJuan Blair | San Antonio | 6 | 18 | 30 |
| James Harden | Oklahoma City | 4 | 14 | 22 |
| Jonny Flynn | Minnesota | 4 | 14 | 22 |
| Jonas Jerebko | Detroit | 2 | 18 | 22 |
Other players receiving votes, with point totals (first place votes in parentheses):
Wesley Matthews, Utah, 16 (3); Omri Casspi, Sacramento, 13; Chase Budinger, Houston, 8; Ty Lawson, Denver, 7; Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia, 7 (1); Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City, 6 (1); Toney Douglas, New York, 2 (1); Rodrigue Beaubois, Dallas, 1; Sam Young, Memphis, 1; DeMar, DeRozan, 1.
