The Rookie of the Year race between Philadelphia 76ers forward Ben Simmons and Utah Jazz shooting guard Donovan Mitchell is a close one, and one that bares some major similarities to the 2003-04 season.

Simmons is boasting all-around great numbers that have led the Sixers to finish out the season strongly, currently riding a 15-game win streak into the last game of this campaign, while Mitchell has led his team in scoring with 20.5 points per game, managing 48 wins on the season — the most since David Robinson in 1989-90, according to Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders.

Mitchell is also the first rookie to lead a team in scoring and advance to the playoffs since Carmelo Anthony did it with the Denver Nuggets in 2003-04.

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Simmons has a clear resemblance to his self-admitted idol in LeBron James, who won the Rookie of the Year award for the 2003-04 season over Anthony, despite the latter having a better scoring and rebounding averages, all-around better shooting percentages, win shares, along with playing in all 82 games of the season.

The argument back in the day was that Anthony was leading a team to the playoffs while the Cleveland Cavaliers fell a game short of clinching the postseason, but this time around both rookies have coupled winning with their excellent stats to make it that much more interesting.

Back in 2003-04, James won with 508 of 590 possible points to his favor, as Anthony finished with 430. This year's race could be just as close, with plenty in the Mitchell bandwagon, as he gave an injury-plagued team a chance to claim the third seed.