Internationals Kirk Penney and Dillon Boucher picked up the
major honours at a bittersweet awards evening for the New
Zealand Breakers basketball club in Auckland last night.
Penney was named Most Valuable Player of the year, voted on
by media and coaches through the Australian National
Basketball League (ANBL), and fans Player of the Year.
Boucher won the Players' Player of the Year, as voted by his
teammates.
Penney reflected on the disappointment that a strong Breakers
side had narrowly failed to reach the playoffs despite a
league-high six-game unbeaten run to end the season.
"We are already working towards a big year next year, the
final six games of the season showed what we can and should
have achieved more consistently this year," he said.
"We have the makings of a championship in this club and we
will continue to work hard to bring the title to the North
Shore." Boucher said it was hard to pinpoint why the club
fell painstakingly short of reaching the top four.
"These guys in this squad genuinely believe we had the
championship in us had we made the play offs," he said.
"It is easy to look back and think of one game here or one
game there but it gets even closer than that. I think of one
possession, one free throw, one turnover, maybe one moment
when I might not have taken the skin off my knees to dive for
a disputed possession, and that is what makes this hard to
take," he said.
"As a group we take responsibility for the losses, we take
responsibility for what happened during the season, and that
means focusing more than ever on improving for next year."
The night was memorable for farewelling ANBL great Tony
Ronaldson, the Australian forward who recently announced his
retirement after 20 years in the league.
An emotional Ronaldson spoke at the end of the evening after
receiving a standing ovation from a 300-strong audience as he
and wife Sarah received gifts from club Directors Paul and
Liz Blackwell.
"Part of my decision to retire was based on the club I am
with right now," Ronaldson said.
"I wanted to retire with a club that meant something to me
and this club will always be close to my heart, I will always
be a Breaker."
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