Unfulfilled Potential: Howie Shannon

Let's look back at the past ten years (2010-2020) and see how each Rookie of the Year (ROTY) winner is doing:

6/11 of the ROTYs have become All-Stars: Luka Doncic, Ben Simmons, Karl-Anthony Towns, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, and Blake Griffin
3/11 of the ROTYs are near All-Stars: Andrew Wiggins, Malcolm Brogdon, and Ja Morant.
1/11 of the ROTYs, although not the best, is still a role-player in the league: Michael Carter-Williams
And 1/11 of the ROTYs is no longer in the league, but that has to do with a ban rather than him being bad: Tyreke Evans.

Most Rookie of the Year's end up with long NBA careers, even if they aren't the best, but there is one exception. Howie Shannon was named ROTY for the 1948-49 NBA season. However, just one year after he was named ROTY, he vanished from the NBA.

Here's the story of the ROTY that only played two seasons, Howie Shannon.

It won't be a long story since he literally just played two seasons.

Heads Up: there are barely any pictures of Howie Shannon because this was EIGHTY years ago. The only available pictures have EXTREMELY horrible quality.

College Career:

In the 1947-48 NCAA season, Howie Shannon played Guard/Small Forward for the Kansas State Wildcats. With the Wildcats, Shannon averaged:

9.9 Points

3.9 Field Goals, 2.1 Free Throws, and 2.4 Free Throw Attempts

2 Personal Fouls

Of the seven teams that were a part of the Big Seven Conference, the Wildcats would end up first with a 9-3 Win/Loss record (75.0%). The Wildcats overall record was 22-6 (78.6%). In the NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats would make it all the way to the Final Four but would end up losing to Baylor University.

This isn't the most impressive achievement since there were only eight teams in the NCAA Tournament, but still an achievement.

In the Quarterfinals (Elite Eight) against the University of Wyoming, the Wildcats won 58-48. Howie Shannon had 14 points and shot 100% (6/6) from the free-throw line!

The Semifinals did not end a