New Zealand Breakers star shooting guard Kirk Penney has been named the winner of the Andrew Gaze Trophy as the National Basketball League’s Most Valuable Player for the 2008/09 season, becoming the first New Zealander ever to win the NBL’s top award.
Penney registered 92 votes to narrowly take out the award from Sydney Spirit big man Matthew Knight on 90. Melbourne Tigers’ Nigerian import Ebi Ere came third with 89 votes, while Mark Worthington of the South Dragons (87) and Shawn Redhage of the Perth Wildcats (86) rounded out the top five in an extremely tight race.
Penney, who previously played for the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Clippers in the American NBA, averaged 24.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 28 regular season games for the Breakers in 2008/09. He shot the ball at 45.6% from the field, 37.3% from three-point territory and 80.4% from the free-throw line.
The Tall Blacks star also led his team to their best-ever season, helping the Breakers to the Semi-Finals for the first time in club history.
Whilst Penney was delighted with the award, he was also disappointed that the Breakers’ season ended with a 2-0 sweep at the hands of the Melbourne Tigers.
“We, the players and coaches, definitely had a bit of a sour taste in how we lost to the Tigers. We felt like we should have played better and had a chance of winning the series,” Penney said of the award.
“I guess it is a little [bittersweet] because you want to win a championship, and they’re the memories that never leave you. But as a personal accolade it’s just a huge honour.”
Voting for the MVP award is conducted following each regular season game by the coaching staffs of each team, with the player amassing the most votes at the end of the season being declared the winner.
The NBL’s MVP award is named after Melbourne Tigers great Andrew Gaze, with the trophy being a specially commissioned sculpture of Gaze in action.
The Sacramento Bee (Ailene Voisin) reports: The demise of Kenny Thomas, in fact, remains one of the hidden mysteries of the declining Kings empire. He is still the Kings’ best rebounder. He is still the Kings’ best post defender. He is still anchored at the end of the bench, except during road trips. Then he just stays home. Team officials recently decided that the brooding veteran was a negative influence on the youngsters and deleted him from the traveling squad. So what exactly did Thomas do to tick off his bosses besides gain 10 to 15 unwanted pounds? “I don’t know,” said Thomas, who was acquired from Philadelphia four years ago in the Chris Webber trade. “I DON’T know. I wish I could tell you. I don’t have any answers. It’s on them (the Kings). I’ve got one year left on my contract. They’ve got to move me. Why would I want to stay here? I played well in Houston, played well for Larry Brown in Philly. I’ve just accepted it. I’ll get on with my career when I get out of here.”
New York Newsday (Alan Hahn) reports (via blog): Chris Duhon, who used to regularly log 40-to-48 minutes a game for D’Antoni earlier in the season, played just 25:44 and had five points and three assists with three turnovers. He now has 30 turnovers in his past seven games, which is a concerning average of 4.2 per game. The former Dukie is also struggling with his shooting — 22 for 56 (39.2 percent) from the floor over the past seven games — which, along with the turnovers, points to fatigue. And that doesn’t bode well for the Knicks, with seven back-to-backs (including this weekend’s, which ends tonight against the Nets)… Duhon has played with a sore back for most of the entire season. You often see him trying to stretch it before games and it’s impossible not to notice his lack of explosiveness on drives to the basket (as a result, he almost always will look to pass on the pick-and-roll play, which opponents have picked up on).
The AP reports: Boston Celtics All-Star Kevin Garnett will miss at least two more games with a right knee sprain. Coach Doc Rivers said Sunday that Garnett won’t be back “earlier than next Sunday.”