Ballots for the NBA’s annual awards have yet to be distributed, but all eyes are on the Rookie of the Year race between Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg and Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel.
Those two are all but guaranteed to find themselves on the All-Rookie First Team, but who else could join them in consideration for All-Rookie honors?
Lake Highlands product Tre Johnson is a prime candidate to receive an All-Rookie nod for an impressive first year with the Washington Wizards.
The Wizards sent a unique promotional pitch to The Dallas Morning News to highlight their case for Johnson to be voted to one of the NBA’s two All-Rookie teams.
The package arrived in the form of a vinyl record with the “album” titled “Tre Johnson: Certified Bucket.” The inspiration behind the project derived from the resurgence of vinyl records and Johnson’s basketball-obsessed mentality. A portrait of Johnson is displayed on the inside of the record sleeve, along with a compilation of eight accomplishments he achieved during this season, listed in the form of a tracklist.
For example, the fourth track is titled “Fastest to 100” because Johnson is the fastest player in franchise history to reach 100 career 3-pointers, achieving the feat in 50 games.
Johnson finished this season with averages of 12.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 70 games with shooting splits of 41.9% from the field, 35.8% from 3 and 87.4% from the free-throw line. Also included inside the album cover was a QR code, which linked directly to a website highlighting Johnson’s full case for an All-Rookie team.
A vinyl record wouldn’t be complete without music, right? Inside the sleeves were two random albums, ranging from “Festival of Light Classical Music” to “Herb Albert’s Ninth.” The Wizards selected random vintage albums and included them in their promotional packages to voters across the league.
The Wizards also shared a separate list, “Songs of the Season,” which had a compilation of songs from nine members of the team. Johnson’s song was a bonus track, “Certified Bucket.” Former Mavericks forward Anthony Davis, who was traded to Washington in February, selected J. Cole’s “Poor Thing.” New Wizard point guard Trae Young chose Wale’s “Watching Us.”
A media voting panel will select five players for the All-Rookie First Team and five players for the All-Rookie Second Team at any position. Last season’s results were announced on May 20, which coincided with the first game of the Conference Finals.
Johnson’s Wizards won’t be dancing to the sound of the playoffs, but he has a pretty good case to be named one of the NBA’s top 10 rookies.