First-year guard Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies has won the Rookie of the Year award, announced the NBA on Thursday. He was the second one in Memphis franchise history to do it after Pau Gasol in 2002.

"Man, it's a blessing. I'm definitely honored. I put a lot of work in, day in and day out. This journey has been rough, but, you know, in the end, it's all paying off. I still have a lot more work to do, but for guys, kids who are not heavily recruited right now, this gives them hope," said Morant.

This result should not be much surprising, but the tally was astonishing for two reasons. First, Morant got 99 of the 100 first-place votes from 100 sportswriters and broadcasters worldwide to gain dominant 498 points. Second, the No. 2 ranking young man was Kendrick Nunn of the Miami Heat, not Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans, who many thought might have the chance to challenge Morant.

"I want to shoot a direct message to them and thank them for motivating me, even more, to do more on the floor and be better and do whatever I can to help my team in a basketball game."

Williamson actually did not pose a threat to Morant in the competition, not only because he played just 24 games this season. Nor was his performance of leading the team convincing enough, especially compared with Morant's work in Memphis. The 21-year-old orchestrator from Murray State University averaged 17.8 points and 7.3 assists in 67 games and almost led Memphis into the playoffs in his rookie season.

Morant enjoys absolute physical talents. In his first year in the league, over 50 percent of his individual offense happened under the rim. His speed, leaping ability, and explosiveness enabled the 21-year-old to put every big man into the posters of him finishing Tomahawks.

Meanwhile, Morant developed a good knowledge of modern basketball and is a born-orchestrator. He can shoot floater around the free-throw line when it's too crowded in the paint; he knew when and how to use screen both from both outside and inside; he could charge his way deep before finding an open teammate in the wing or passing the ball to his center teammate when he had mismatch advantage because his teammate enjoyed bigger mismatch and was closer to the bucket.

Of course, Morant still has to work on his 3-point shooting, which was disqualified in both quantity (3.1 attempts per 36 minutes) and quality (33.5 percent of 3-point rate). He is currently only 78 kilograms, way from enough to challenge the muscular monsters. Besides, Morant must learn how to shoot off the dribble to make himself a better playmaker.