Blake Griffin will be the NBA’s 2010-2011 Rookie of the Year.

This is indisputable. It’ll almost certainly be unanimous. He’s an All-Star in his first season. He averages nearly 23 points and 13 rebounds per game. He’s liable to throw down at least one “Oh my gosh!” dunk per contest. For a league predicated on inhuman athleticism, Griffin takes it to a new level.

But he shouldn’t be the Rookie of the Year. Not because there’s any first-year player better than him—there’s no one close—but because he’s not a true rookie. Griffin was the first overall pick in the 2009 draft, but he missed the entirety of the 2009-2010 season with a broken left kneecap. NBA rules stipulate that because he never took to the court during that year, his status as a “rookie” remains intact.

And yet, it shouldn’t. He signed his contract in July 2009, played in the Summer League and was, in fact, named MVP. The Summer League teams are made up of rookies as well as young veterans and players who have prior NBA experience. He played the entire preseason and practiced extensively with the Clippers before his injury. This begets a simple fact: Griffin has had the invaluable experience of being around an NBA team and learning about the game at the professional level. Just being in the locker room is advantageous. When he was rehabbing, he was able to do it with the world’s best trainers.

Simply put, when he played in his first NBA game this fall, he was on a different level from other NBA rookies who, while Griffin was making millions and working with professionals of the highest echelon last season, were almost all amateurs.

It’s a first-time issue for the NBA. In its history, the NBA has given the award to someone from a prior draft class three times, but none had Griffin’s experience. Jerry Lucas was drafted in 1962, but didn’t sign until 1963. Larry Bird was chosen in 1978, but went back to college for another season before inking a deal with the Boston Celtics. David Robinson was drafted in 1987, but because he graduated from Annapolis, he had to first serve in the Navy and didn’t enter the league until 1989. Never has a player signed a contract with an NBA team, missed a season, then gone on to win Rookie of the Year in his following campaign.

The NFL doesn’t allow this to happen. Of the “big four” American sports, it is the closest comparison to the NBA (at least in this case), because both the MLB and NHL have finely developed minor league systems that impact eligibility, since players are recalled and sent back down with remarkable frequency. The NFL has nothing of the sort, and the NBA’s Development League is still in its infancy and has yet to work out all of its kinks—it has a long way to go to reach that level.

In the NFL, although the exact rule is nearly impossible to find, once you are on a team, your rookie year begins. Take the example of Willis McGahee. When he was drafted in 2003, McGahee was rehabbing tears of his ACL, PCL and MCL in his left knee. He never made it onto the field in 2003 and debuted in 2004. In that, his first year, he rushed for 1,128 yards and 13 touchdowns. He would have been a strong contender for Offensive Rookie of the Year (the award went to Ben Roethlisberger), but he wasn’t allowed to be in the conversation.

Which, ultimately, is correct. McGahee, even when he was injured, was, like Griffin, around a professional team, rehabbing with the best and absorbing knowledge that you’d only find in an NFL environment. Like Griffin, he had a step up when he finally got a chance to play.

But why do we care? Because if Griffin wasn’t eligible, the Rookie of the Year, if he keeps up his current production, would most probably be none other than Stanford’s Landry Fields, a second-round pick of the New York Knicks and the biggest surprise of the 2010 draft class. Though he’d have competition from DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall, Fields would likely be the current frontrunner, and he presents a strong case. A starter since his first game, Fields leads all NBA guards in rebounding while averaging 10.2 points per game. He’s first among rookies in three-point shooting percentage, second in steals per game, third in double-doubles and fourth in general shooting percentage, even besting Griffin, a forward, in the latter category. His plus/minus (a stat measuring team performance when a player is on the court) is 110 on the season—best on the Knicks.

It’s easy to see why: Fields has a knack for the ball and basketball instincts that are practically unteachable. He’s the ideal “glue” player who can also explode when you need him too—he dropped 25 points on the Sixers over the weekend. Spike Lee, the world’s most visible Knicks fan, has been wearing a Fields jersey to practically every home game. He explains: “There’s Muddy Waters; now we’ve got Muddy Fields because he doesn’t mind getting dirty, doing the little things.” That style of play has made him a fan favorite and has drawn a comparison from his own general manager to Hall of Famer John Havlicek. For his efforts, he was named Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for November and December, and was a finalist for the honor in January.

Fields will not become the first second-rounder in the modern era to win the Rookie of the Year award. But if the NBA had the correct eligibility requirements in place, he’d be leading the pack heading into the All-Star break.

Wyndam Makowsky doesn’t feel any connection to a player from his favorite college and pro team. Ask him how many other candidates he’s Facebook friends with at makowsky “at” stanford.edu.