The P.League+ (PLG) has revised its rules for selecting the best player every week after fans chose a shooting guard who did not score a point during the week he won.
The league on Friday said in a statement that it would change the title of the award from “Most Valuable Player of the Week” to “Player of the Week,” and require that each franchise nominate three players for the title based on their stats for the week.
The changes, which take effect this week, came shortly after New Taipei Kings’ Lin Li-jen was crowned Player of the Week (for Monday to Sunday last week), despite posting record-low stats, in what appeared to be a coordinated online effort.
Photo: CNA
The honor has always been determined by an online poll, aimed at encouraging fan engagement with the league, but a lack of eligibility requirements meant that all players were candidates regardless of whether they even played in a particular week.
In his sole appearance last week, Lin played just more than nine minutes in the Kings’ 122-96 loss to the Taipei Fubon Braves on Saturday last week, missing all six of his shot attempts, while recording a turnover, a foul, four rebounds and an assist.
Lin received a league-record 4,043 votes online, far ahead of runner-up Graham Dominique of the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots (1,088 votes), who scored a season-high 24 points in the team’s eighth straight win on Sunday last week.
Voters also ignored the Braves’ Chou Kuei-yu, who scored 34 points in the team’s four-point loss to the Pilots, and the Kaohsiung Steelers’ Cameron Clark, who set a league single-game scoring high for this season with 48.
Following the vote, the PLG referred to Lin as “MVP social media voting #1” in a post online rather than “Player of the Week,” a move generally seen as an attempt to differentiate the significance of the win from previous ones.
The vote appeared to have stemmed from an online dispute Lin had with a social media influencer who felt the Kings had used inconsistent standards to respond to a series of issues, including the arrest of Quincy Davis on domestic violence charges, Jeremy Lin’s recent blood treatment and Byron Mullens’ dismissal following an in-game outburst on March 31.
Lin Li-jen’s defense of his team appeared to have sparked outrage online, particular the comment: “You outsiders have no idea about the culture of the sports industry.”
Thousands of people unsubscribed to his YouTube channel as a result.
Many people had attempted to vote for Lin Li-jen as Player of the Week in the previous week as a form of protest, only to find that the league had removed him as an option in the middle of the campaign.
The league reinstated Lin Li-jen’s name for last week before tightening the requirements on Friday.
On Thursday, the PLG announced that Pilots shooting guard Lu Chun-hsiang was named MVP of the Month for last month, the second consecutive month he has won the award.
Lu averaged 19.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, and four assists as the Pilots achieved a league-best 8-1 record during the month. His 40-point game against the Braves on March 24 set a new record for a Taiwan-born player in the league.
With this latest honor, the 26-year-old has tied Jeremy Lin for the most monthly MVPs with four.
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