NBA Rookie of the Year Winners of This Decade: Where Are They Now? (Part Two)

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series. The first may be found here.

Rookies.

Quite exciting to watch, eh? We always love to see if they were worth their draft pick, if they can transfer their talent from college or overseas to the pros.

This year's draft class appears to be very deep, and very interesting. More so than before, a lot of rookies are making bigger impacts on teams. Because of this, the race has thickened considerably, with Bulls guard Derrick Rose and Grizzlies star OJ Mayo leading the way.

But instead of merely picking out my favourite or ranking this season's prospectives, I've decided to look a bit more at the award itself. The rookie of the year trophy—the Eddie Gottlieb trophy named after the 1946-47 NBA Championship winning Philadelphia Warriors team.

How are the previous winners of the award faring? Let us look back at this decade's Rookie of the Year winners, and see how they are doing in the NBA now.

This is the second part of the article, where we will be looking at the last five winners of the trophy.

2003-2004: LeBron James

Ever heard of this guy?

Back Then

LeBron was probably the most hyped player ever coming into the draft. It was unheard of. There were other stars in the draft, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade, who had unbelievable seasons in college, who in other years would have been the talk of the draft...but not this year.

James finished the year averaging 20 points a game, along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

Where Is He Now?

Like you don't know. LeBron has exploded to become the face of the league, is the leading candidate for the MVP so far, lead the league in scoring for most of the season so far and has improved every aspect of his game every year.

This year, it's been his free-throw shooting and individual defense.

Since winning the ROY, LeBron has been a four time all-star, winning the MVP twice. He's been an NBA scoring champion, made the NBA's first and second teams, won an Olympic gold medal, provided countless highlights, and smashed almost every record he can in one way or another.

2004-2005: Emeka Okafor

Back Then

Emeka was a star at UConn, leading them to a national championship and being named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, as well as the Defensive Player of the Year. He was a true beast in college.

Emeka was selected second overall by the expansion Charlotte Bobcats, becoming the team's first ever pick. He finished the year with averages of 15 points per game with over 10 rebounds.

Where Is He Now?

Emeka is still with the Bobcats, and is still a major piece to their puzzle, but has still not reached his potential, at least on the offensive end. Though, in all likelihood he was never going to get noticed while playing on such awful teams.

He had a very tough sophomore season that was riddled with injury. His highest scoring season was in his rookie campaign. Emeka has not even sniffed the playoffs.

Since winning the ROY, Emeka has been mired on the still awful Bobcats. Though he has improved, he has still not found his true niche, and hasn't made an All-Star game.

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