SEATTLE – The expectations were there for Kevin Durant the day he first arrived in Seattle: anything less than being the best rookie in the NBA would be a disappointment.

The 19-year-old didn’t disappoint.

Durant, the Sonics’ dynamic young star, has been chosen as the NBA Rookie of the Year, The Associated Press has learned from a person with knowledge of the vote. The person requested anonymity because the official announcement has not been made, but is likely to come on Thursday when the Sonics have scheduled a news conference.

The honor was first reported by The Seattle Times in Wednesday’s editions.

Durant becomes the first Sonics’ player to receive the award after leading the downtrodden team in scoring, living up to the lofty expectations placed on him after being the national college player of the year at Texas and the No. 2 overall pick in June’s draft.

“I don’t think it’s remotely close in terms of what he’s done in any category, from top to bottom,” Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo said at the end of the season. “Where he stacks up to compared to previous rookies and what they’ve accomplished in their first year, how he compares to other rookies of the year, how he compares to the other rookies in this class.”

Playing as a true shooting guard for the first time in his young basketball career, Durant was asked from the start to carry the scoring load for a rebuilding Sonics franchise. Durant averaged 20.3 points, grabbed 4.4 rebounds and played a team-high 34 minutes per night. His scoring was the highest average for a rookie of the year since LeBron James averaged 20.9 points in 2003-04. Carmelo Anthony averaged 21 points as a rookie, in 2003-04, but James won the award.

Despite strong rookie seasons from Atlanta’s Al Horford and Houston’s Luis Scola – both of whom deemed strong consideration with the success of their teams – Durant’s selection is hardly a surprise, especially after overall No. 1 pick Greg Oden went down over the summer with a knee injury. Durant was the Western Conference rookie of the month five times, only once not picking up the award, when it went to Scola.

“It would mean a lot,” Durant said after the season about the rookie award. “My main goal was to come in and get better. This summer is big for me to become a better player and help this team out next year and that’s what I’m going to try and do. But if I am the rookie of the year, it’s a blessing.”

Durant experienced the typical rookie struggles early on. He took rushed and challenged shots at times, dropping his shooting percentage, as he learned just what he could do in Carlesimo’s offensive system.

But as the season progressed, Durant’s confidence grew even as the team stumbled through the worst season in franchise history. Durant averaged 21.8 points and shot nearly 53 percent in March. He capped his rookie season by averaging 24.3 points in his final eight games. Durant scored the winning points in what could have been the Sonics’ final home game in Seattle, a 99-95 win over Dallas, then followed with a career-best 42 points in the Sonics’ season finale against Golden State.