Regular season MVP: Lin Chih-jay
Yes, I know it's weird, but the SBL finally announced its annual award Thursday -- FIVE days after the champion was determined.
And TB forward Lin Chih-jay came up as the big winner. Lin, who had won Finals MVP less than a week ago, was named regular season MVP as well, beating out Videoland import Jonathan Sanders in the media voting with a close score of 96 to 89.
Personally, I would have voted Sanders for my regular season MVP though. But I also understand very well the "politics" behind the media voting because most of them always favored local players over imports. It's sad and no one could do anything about it. Voting is politics, after all.
Not surprisingly, Lin was also on the list of the Best Five, which recognized a pair of backcourt players and three frontcourt players.
Dacin guard Wang Chih-chun, Yulon guard Lee Hsueh-lin and Sanders were all named to the best five for the first time.
Best five: (left to right) Wang Chih-chun, Lee Hsueh-lin, Lin Chih-jay, Tien Lei, Jonathan Sanders.
Yulon center Tsun Wen-din won the defensive player of the year award for the second consecutive year, while first-year VL head coach Liu Chih-wei was named coach of the year after leading Videoland to a 21-9 regular season.
Tsun beat out import Delvin Thomas, who played for ETSN, 92-62 in the media voting.
Azio forward Chien Jia-hong was recognized as the most improved player in a lanslide score of 129-21 over Bank of Taiwan forward Hsu Chih-chan.
VL forward/guard Lee Wei-min, who transferred from TB to Videoland last summer, won the inaugural sixth man of the year award.
Dacin forward Yao Jun-jay was named rookie of the year. It's true that this is Yao's first year in the league but he was not really a rookie because he played for Dacin a couple years back in the A-League.
2006-07 SBL season awards:
MVP: Lin Chih-jay (TB)
Defensive Player of the Year: Tsun Wen-din (Yulon)
Most Improved Player: Chien Jia-hong (Azio)
Sixth Man of the Year: Lee Wei-min (VL)
Coach of the Year: Liu Chih-wei (VL)
Rookie of the Year: Yao Jun-jay (Dacin)
Best Five:
Wang Chih-chun (Dacin)
Lee Hsueh-lin (Yulon)
Tien Lei (Dacin)
Lin Chih-jay (TB)
Jonathan Sanders (VL)