Donovan Mitchell and Ben Simmons fought it out at the end of last season in one of the best Rookie of the Year races the NBA has ever seen.
But at times, it got messy. Mitchell and sponsor Adidas attacked Simmons’ “redshirt” status — Simmons sat out the 2016-17 season due to injury — while Simmons aloofly took shots as well, including ahead of his first matchup against Mitchell and the Jazz in Salt Lake City this season, when Simmons dismissed the idea of the race.
"It wasn’t a [expletive] race,” Simmons said then. “You saw the votes, right?