Victor Wembanyama’s jersey is the fourth-most sold in the NBA. Credit: Reginald Thomas II / San Antonio Spurs

Spurs Rookie Victor Wembanyama has won the NBA’s coveted Rookie of the Year Award (ROTY).

Or so says someone stocking shelves at a South Side Dick’s Sporting Goods.

On Sunday, Spurs super fan Mark Burnett shared photos on the social media channel X that showed white T-shirts on a sales rack emblazoned with the words “ROTY” and “Victor Wembanyama.” He said he’d spotted them at a “certain sporting good store on the South Side of San Antonio.”

Another X user, @ robert_zepeda20, even chimed in that he’d “bought a few.”

There’s just one problem: Wemby hasn’t bagged the award yet. Indeed, the NBA isn’t slated to announce the ROTY winner until Monday night at 6 p.m. CST. The unveiling will happen before the New York Knicks take on the Indiana Pacers in the second round of the playoffs.

During a Monday morning visit to the Dick’s at 2310 SW Military Drive, a store employee who preferred not to give his name, confirmed the ROTY shirts had been in the store for “a while” and were mistakenly put out for sale over the weekend.

The retailer has since returned the shirts to its stockroom and won’t put them back on the sales floor until the award is final. Assuming, of course, Wemby wins.

The comments from the Dick’s employee line up with info Burnett provided in a since-deleted tweet.

“Dicks Sporting Goods on SW Military has them in stock ready for release but will not give a release date,” Burnett wrote in the removed post. “They have been pulled from the shelves until the official announcement. I would definitely check any Dicks Sporting Goods after tomorrow’s official announcement.”

Spurs superfan Mark Burnett said a South Side Dick’s Sporting Goods location has Wembanyama ROTY T-shirts in its back room. Credit: X / @SpursSixthMan

The NBA first announced on April 22 that Wemby is a top-three finalist for the both the ROTY and Defensive Player of the Year awards.

Both recognitions — along with the league’s Most Valuable Player award — are selected by a global panel of sports journalists. The journos pick the three finalists, and a ranked vote predetermines the winner in each.

Wembanyama averaged 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game this past season. For reference, those three stats are all higher than those posted by Lebron James’ during his 2003 rookie season.

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This article appears in May 1-14, 2024.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...