From my source at Adidas:

New York, New York April 22, 2009 - 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.

The official Rookie of the Year Commemorative T-shirt from adidas will be available starting today at the adidas Sport Performance Store in Chicago at 845 North Michigan Ave. Additionally fans can purchase the new Derrick Rose tee at the NBA Store.com, the Chicago Bulls Team Shop, and the Bulls team site. The tee will retail for $19.99.

For more information on the 2009 NBA Playoffs check out http://www.nba.com/playoffs2009/

I’m pretty sure everyone saw this coming. Rose had been tearing it up all year and managed to get last year’s underachieving Bulls into the Playoffs, where they’ve managed to take away Boston’s homecourt advantage. Not surprising is that he got more than double the votes of runner-up, OJ Mayo. The really surprising part to me, is that Brook Lopez came in 3rd and Michael Beasley is no where to be found.

My friend in San Diego has been surprised by Lopez this year, since they used to play on a traveling youth basketball team together a few years back. According to my friend, Brook Lopez was always soft, but apparently not anymore.

Congrats to Rose for having an amazing year, though. This kid has been stellar ever since he stepped foot on the NBA courts. I definitely look forward to him having a long career and somehow miraculously ending up on the Lakers. He’s going to be a force to be reckoned with. Watching him this year has been amazing. He always seems to come up big when he’s called upon.

I know everyone keeps comparing Kobe to Jordan, but can Rose be the next Kobe? Only time will tell.

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