NBL Awards Night

The winning action photo from Townsville Bulletin's Evan Morgan.

Last night saw the who's who of basketball gather at the Melbourne Aquarium to celebrate the season. The moment I walked through the front doors a rush of adrenaline hit me as the anticipation of the award winners just got too much for me to handle.

Perched on the edge of my seat as John Casey (please, some new jokes Casey) got the evening underway, I perused the room to see who I felt would take out the awards. It was not too hard to figure this out as the only players in attendance (besides Anthony Stewart, Martin Cattilini and myself) were there to receive awards.

OK, I cannot carry on with this. All the winners had been named in the media previous to the night's events. My point is why announce the winners before the occasion? Not even a word-smith of the caliber of John Casey could convince me that I did not know that Chris Anstey was going to be named MVP.

For those of you who did not happen to know the winners before last night, it went like this:
MVP: Chris Anstey
Defensive POY: Chris Anstey
6th Man: Dontaye Draper
MIP: Cameron Tragardh
ROY: Nathan Jawai
COY: Brian Goorjian

Townsville did not leave the evening empty handed. Townsville Bulletin photographer Evan Morgan won the best action shot of the season. Our always photogenic import, Corey "Homicide" Williams, was his victim (prize shot). Check out the other media winners here. (Please swap Evan Morgan and Paul Kane's names with the awards.) Thanks to Stephen Hoare I also picked up the business card prize. (Although I don't have a card, a corner of the napkin worked nicely.) The prize is a shark dive at the Melbourne Aquarium. You should have seen the sharks face when they saw me walk up and collected the envelope. They were hoping for Pero Cameron.

Enough about the awards. Let's talk about what I heard throughout the night.
- It is good to see that several CEO's take time out of their day to read my blog, much appreciated
- It was decided that Anthony Stewart has been the Crocs worst signing of all time (my poll will prove this)
- Brian Goorjian will be the new Dragons coach (not yet confirmed)
- D-Mac was trying to convince himself that he is happily retired
- Former Crocs CEO Barry Gibson is still vertically challenged
- Sean Lampley and Mark Worthington sat and stared into each others eyes all night

In other news around the basketball traps. Ken Watson is the father of Aussie hoops. Kings' boss puts gag order on troops.

Today saw two Aussies finish their respective college basketball careers. Baylor's Aaron Bruce and Arizona's Daniel Dillon could not come up with the win. They are left to ponder, 'what is next'. Tomorrow will see a handful of Aussies take to the hardwood. I can only hope to report that some remain after their games.

For all the days' boxscores look HERE.