NEW YORK, May 11 -- Chicago's Elton Brand and Steve Francis of Houston received an equal amount of votes and will share NBA Rookie of the Year honors, the league announced on Thursday. It marked the third time in history and the second in six years that voters selected co-winners.
Brand, the power forward of the Chicago Bulls and the top pick in the 1999 NBA draft, and Francis, the point guard of the Houston Rockets, who was the second pick, each received 58 of a possible 121 votes from a media panel.
"I've talked to Steve twice this week and he said that I should win it and I said that he should win it," Brand said. "But I can tell you this -- we're both real happy. We will always be linked together throughout our careers because of winning this award. Hopefully we both can go on and be ambassadors for the sport like Grant Hill and Jason Kidd did when they came into the league."
Brand is the first Bull to win the award since Michael Jordan in 1985 and Francis the first Rocket since Ralph Sampson in '84. Since 1990, top overall picks have won or shared the award seven times.
The last time players shared the award was 1995, when Hill and Kidd split the vote. Dave Cowens and Geoff Petrie shared it in 1971.
Despite playing for the lowly Bulls, the 6-8 Brand became just the 19th rookie to average 20 points and 10 rebounds per game, joining stars such as Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan. He averaged 20.1 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.63 blocks in 81 games.
An early-season injury to Toni Kukoc and his subsequent late-season trade to Philadelphia left Brand with virtually no offensive help. But he still battled a steady stream of double-teams to shoot 48 percent from the field.
There is very little flash to Brand's game, which consists of solid fundamentals and hard work. In the Rookie Challenge at All-Star Weekend, a game made for flashy players, Brand won MVP honor with his 16 point, 21 rebound performance.
Francis, who was chosen by Vancouver then sent to Houston in a blockbuster trade before the season began, also played in that game. He turned on the crowd with a variety of dribble moves, no-look passes and dunks. But over the course of the season, he showed there is more to his game than flash.
Trades and injuries pushed Francis into a much bigger role with the Rockets than expected but he responded with a solid season, averaging team highs of 18.0 points and 6.6 assists while grabbing 5.3 rebounds in 77 games. He shot 44.5 percent and made 107 three-pointers.
"Any player will tell you that being drafted is really special," Francis said. "Right now, this is the next best thing to that."
The Rockets initially acquired Francis to distribute the ball to superstars Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon, but Pippen was traded to Portland, and Barkley and Olajuwon succumbed to injuries, leaving Francis not only to run the offense, but also to be its No. 1 option.
Neither team greatly benefited from the stellar seasons of their prized first-year players.
Chicago went 17-65 and was the worst team in the Eastern Conference for the second straight season, while Houston missed the playoffs for the first time since 1992 with its 34-48 record.
Los Angeles Clippers forward Lamar Odom, who was playing some minutes at point guard at the end of the season, was a distant third with three votes, and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Andre Miller received the other two.
