The 2022 WNBA Rookie of the Year Award belongs to the Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard, the league announced on Thursday afternoon.
Howard received 53 of the 56 possible votes to put a bow on a fantastic rookie season in which she averaged 16.2 points per game, broke the rookie three-point record, earned Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors after her first week of games, and was named a WNBA All-Star.
With Howard winning Rookie of the Year, the award now returns to the draft’s No. 1-overall pick for the first time since 2018 when A’ja Wilson took home the honors.
It is also just the second time ever, and first since Angel McCoughtry in 2009, an Atlanta Dream player was named Rookie of the Year.
Here are some of the best moments from Rhyne Howard’s rookie season:
RHYNE HOWARD WITH THE EMPHATIC BLOCK 😤 pic.twitter.com/pgCWBuJSX7
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 14, 2022
Rhyne Howard etches her name in the history books 📚@howard_rhyne now has the #WNBA record for the most 3s in a season by a rookie (77), passing Tamika Catchings' (76) who set the record in 2002 🙌#MoreThan pic.twitter.com/gegj6tIclJ
— WNBA (@WNBA) August 10, 2022
Today in Rhyne Howard absurditypic.twitter.com/N5ohznLgSy
— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) June 1, 2022
The celebration after hitting this move is COLD BLOODED, Rhyne Howard 🥶 #WNBA #WNBATwitter #Morethan #WNBAAllStar #DoitfortheDream #rhynehoward pic.twitter.com/oMDZKvgI8g
— WNBA Got Game (@wnbagotgame) June 11, 2022
