NBA Rookie of the Year

won the award in the 1959–60 NBA season. (formerly known as Lew Alcindor) won the award unanimously in the 1969–70 NBA season.|alt=head shot of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the award in the 1979–80 NBA season.|alt=head shot of Larry Bird won the award in the 1984–85 NBA season. won the award in the 1996–97 NBA season.|alt=Allen Iverson at a post-game interview won the award in the 2001–02 NBA season.|alt=Pau Gasol boxing-out for a rebound. won the award in the 2003–04 NBA season.|alt=LeBron James preparing to shoot a free throw won the award in the 2007–08 NBA season.|alt=Kevin Durant at ARCO Arena won the award in the 2008–09 NBA season.|alt=Derrick Rose 2 won the award in the 2018–19 NBA season. == Unofficial winners ==

Prior to the season, the Rookie of the Year was selected by newspaper writers; however, the NBA does not officially recognize those players as winners. The league published the pre-1953 winners in their 1994–95 edition of the Official NBA Guide and the 1994 Official NBA Basketball Encyclopedia, but those winners have not been listed in subsequent publications. == Teams ==