The 2007 Super Basketball League (SBL) season ended with a big splash when all seven teams gathered at the annual awards ceremony at the Living Mall in Taipei on Thursday evening.
Crowd favorite Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh came away as the biggest winner on the night, claiming the coveted season Most Valuable Player (MVP) distinction along with the Championship Series MVP and a spot on the All-SBL Team.
The fourth-year power forward for Taiwan Beer has demonstrated tremendous growth, transforming himself from a one-dimensional scorer in the last three seasons to a complete floor leader this year in guiding his team to its first league title. Despite seeing his scoring average drop by more than two points per game compared with last season, the Beast has earned a reputation as the heart and soul of the brew crew by going all out on every play and taking the time to look for the opened man when the opposing defense doubles up on the top Taiwan Beer scorer.
PHOTO: SBL
Along with the trophies, the Beast also collected a total of NT$50,000 in prize money for his outstanding achievements in the season.
"I would like to thank all my teammates for their support. I could not have done it without them," the Beast said after the ceremony.
"The season MVP is nice, but what I am really proud of is the championship series MVP," the Beast added, referring to the hard-fought six games that it took for Taiwan Beer to oust the Dacin Tigers en route to the league title.
Joining the Beast as the other big winner on the night was Yulon Dinos center Tseng Wen-ding, whose fourth consecutive blocked-shot crown was just icing on the cake in a season during which the 205cm giant also took home the Defensive Player of the Year honor and a spot on the All-SBL Team.
It was Tseng's dominance inside the paint, either by way of blocking or altering opponents' shots, that gave the Dinos their fourth straight regular-season title this year.
Rounding out this season's All-SBL Team were Videoland Hunters great Jonathan Sanders, who led the league in rebounds with an astonishing 16.3 average, Dacin Tigers dynamic duo Tien Lei and Wang Chih-chuin, and Dinos speedy point man Lee Hsueh-lin.
As for the scoring title, Tien's 27 points per contest was 3.5 points better than Sanders' second-best mark of 23.5.
This year's Top Assists honor went to the Tigers' Su Yi-jeh, whose 5.7 assists per game topped last year's winning mark of 5.0 by 0.7 and showed that the up-and-coming field general for the Tigers has a bright future ahead of himself.
Two other members from the Tigers squad also received well deserved recognition for their remarkable effort throughout the season: Yao Jung-jeh for a solid all-around year that earned him the Rookie of the Year honor and Wang, who led the league in steals with 1.9 per game.
The Coach of the Year trophy went to the deserving Hunters skipper Liu Chih-wei, who turned the fifth-place finisher of a year ago into a formidable fivesome that earned a second-seed berth in the postseason.
Last but not least was the Most Improved Player of the Year award, which went to Jien Jia-hong of the Azio Eagles by a unanimous decision. The second-year center for the Eagles more than doubled his total point production from last season's 9.8 to this season's 20, making him one of the premier big men around the league with hopefully many more great seasons ahead of him.
"It's great to be considered among the best in the league, especially given the level of competition. I will do whatever it takes to keep on improving myself so that we can one day win the title too," Jien said.
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