Castle wins rookie of the year

San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle is the recipient of the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy as the 2024-25 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year.

Castle is the fourth player to win the Kia NBA Rookie of the Year Award with the Spurs, ing David Robinson (1989-90), Tim Duncan (1997-98) and last season’s recipient, Victor Wembanyama (2023-24). The Spurs are the first team to have back-to-back winners of this annual honor since the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2014-15 (Andrew Wiggins) and 2015-16 (Karl-Anthony Towns).

In the 2024-25 regular season, Castle averaged 14.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 0.91 steals in 26.7 minutes in 81 games. He led all rookies in points per game, ranked fourth in assists per game and finished sixth in steals per game. Castle also had the most total points (1,190), steals (74) and free throws made (249) among first-year NBA players.

Castle was named the Kia NBA Western Conference Rookie of the Month twice, for games played in January and March. In 30 games after the All-Star break, he averaged 17.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 28.6 minutes.