The 2023-24 Rookie of the Year award race will be a sight to behold, with three candidates looking like they'll be fighting to the death for the acclaim until season's end. The three favorites to take home the award are San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, Oklahoma City Thunder big man Chet Holmgren, and Portland Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson.

Those three should have ample opportunity to accumulate the counting stats that voters tend to value highly when it comes to rewarding the best rookie for a specific season. Even Henderson should be seen as a worthy ROTY candidate on par with Wembanyama and Holmgren, as the Blazers guard, unlike those two, will have plenty of the ball seeing as he's the team's lead ballhandler.

However, Stephen A Smith believes that Scoot Henderson is the favorite to take home the award not just because of his skillset and the opportunity he'll be having as the Blazers' newest face of the franchise, but because of the fact that he has sisters that push him to be the best version of himself.

“That brother Scoot Henderson in Portland, third overall pick, he got sisters. And I met 'em. First of all, they can ball. And secondly, they get in his face and they will get in his face long before anybody else will,” Smith said on ESPN's First Take. “When you got relatives that's in your face and you know they have an impact on you, they affect your motor.”

Perhaps what Stephen A Smith is saying rings true specifically in the context of the Blazers rookie's life. But it's not like Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama don't have siblings of their own. Wembanyama, in particular, has an older sister who's playing professionally, so it's not like Smith's assertions only applies to Scoot Henderson.

While Smith only backed up his pick for Rookie of the Year with that story, it's still not that much of a differentiator, especially in the context of the Rookie of the Year race. Even without the sisters argument, the Blazers rookie has more than enough merit on his own to warrant consideration for the award.