Basketball: Penney is Breakers' MVP

Kirk Penney. Photo / Sarah Ivey

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."

- NZPA