By Les Tan/Red Hoops in Kuala Lumpur
Jason Dixon hams it up for the photographers after receiving his Best ABL Import award. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Kuala Lumpur, Tuesday, March 9, 2010 – American Jason Dixon of the Philippines Patriots walked away with the Best ABL Import award at the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) end-of-season dinner last night in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The Philippine Patriots also received their championship rings on the night, their reward for sweeping Jakarta-based Satria Muda BritAma 3-0 in the best-of-five finals last month. It was a night of celebration for team owners, sponsors and the organisers of the inaugural league that tipped off in October 2009.
The 6′ 9″ (206cm) big man though, was modest about his award.
“To be honest with you, I personally don’t feel I deserve it,” said Dixon to Red Hoops after the dinner at the Garden Hotel in Mid Valley City. “I personally feel there are various other guys who outperformed me, Gabe Freeman being number one. Nakiea Miller is a guy that you have to give him his credit.
“When you come in number one scorer, number one rebounder, numbers talk. I’m just a guy, I fit in well with my team, I make my team play better. [But] I accept the award, thank you.”
Dixon finished the season with 228 points over 15 games for a 15.2 points-per-game average. Miller, who was brought in after the season started to replace Theo Little in the Satria Muda squad, played 10 games, scoring 207 points for a 20.7 points-per-game average.
For Dixon, who just turned 37 in February, the experience with the Patriots in a new league has been a good one so far.
“With it being a new league, I think every moment is going to be a highlight. I think there’s a lot that they have to learn, but they’ve set their bar so high. It was actually a joy to play for them (Patriots),” said Dixon.
Dixon, a much-travelled professional basketballer who has played in the Philippines, China, Turkey, Cyprus and Europe, was impressed by how the league was run.
“As far as off the court, I have no complaints. We stayed in good hotels. We travelled as well as we could. It was a good league. I was actually surprised at how the league was run,” said Dixon.
“Yes, I have seen [some leagues in my time]. I’ve stayed at some terrible hotels in the leagues that have been established. I’ve seen them treat players like they’re dirt. The ASEAN league has treated the players like they are professionals and that’s a good reputation to have,” Dixon added.
The native of Colorado, USA, is certainly looking forward to resuming his position as centre on the Patriots roster for the upcoming season.
“I am looking forward to seeing how many championships we can win. The thing is when they add more teams, you add more competition. I’m sure the salary cap is going to increase as well. We’ll see what happens,” Dixon said.
Attaporn Lertmalaiporn of the Thailand Tigers won the ABL League MVP award while Patriot Warren Ybanez pipped teammates Robert Wainwright and Jerwin Gaco for the ABL Finals MVP recognition.
Jason Dixon Career Highlights
Guangdong Southern Tigers, Chinese Basketball Association (1998−2001,2002-2009)
- Dixon achieved team-highs of 3908 rebounds, 349 blocks and 498 dunks
- Dixon’s number 15 jersey was retired by the team
Coca-Cola Tigers, Philippine Basketball Association (2008 – Fiesta Conference)
Previous Clubs
1997 – Hapoel Galil Elion, Israel Premier League
1997 – Portland Wave, USBL
1998 – New Jersey Shorecats
1998 – Karsiyaka Izmir Turkiye, Turkey Basketball League
1999 to 2000 – Guangdong Southern Tigers, Chinese Basketball League
2001 – Sodertalje Kings, Sverige Basketligan
2001 – Guangdong Southern Tigers, CBA
2001 – Trotamundos de Carabobo, Venezuela LPB
2001 – Keravnos Keo Nicosia, Cyprus A1
2002 – Huntsville Flight, D-League
2002 – Keravnos Keo Nicosia, Cyprus A1
2003 to 2009 – Guangdong Southern Tigers, CBA
source: www.basketpedya.com
Jason Dixon dunks one home during Game 3 of the finals. His 28 points from 13-for-22 shooting greatly helped the Patriots to the first-ever ASEAN Basketball League title. (Photo 2 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
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More stories from the ABL Championship awards night coming up. Check back later.
“To be honest with you, I personally don’t feel I deserve it,” said Dixon to Red Hoops after the dinner at the Garden Hotel in Mid Valley City. “I personally feel there are various other guys who outperformed me, Gabe Freeman being number one. Nakiea Miller is a guy that you have to give him his credit.
-what a gentleman and a true sportsman..i tip my hat to you sir!
So how did they end up handing Attaporn the MVP?
MVP coming from the last place team. (ok, the only other sensible pick is Leo Avenido, whose team did not reach the playoffs also).
Reminds me of Alvin Patrimonio winning the NCAA MVP back-to-back even when his Cardinals were winless in both seasons.
But perhaps, no other player deserves it more….
everything is ok but,, not the attitude.
if you travel to other country, expect the worst as well.
having good hotel or not, is part of the game, if you accept the offer..
Is it Leo Avenido & Adriano leading the stats??
I don’t know how attaporn name league MVP
I think Attaporn deserves it probably because of his consistency. It just happens that he was in the wrong team or he didn’t have the right set of teammates to complement him. Something the Tigers need to work on in the off-season.
I also agree that players like Francis Adriano and Leo Avenido should be given such recognition, but I guess they happen to be in the same team. So if one of them doesn’t click, the other can take his place.
Did the ABL selected their first All-ABL first and second team? How about the ABL all defensive team?
I just realized that Adriano and Avenido are classified as ASEAN imports along with Al Vergara, Rudy Lingganay, etc.
So when they awarded the best import to Jason Dixon, is this award for imports both ASEAN born and non-ASEAN born? Or, only non-ASEAN born?
as things have turned out: it is all good!
Perhaps the MVP should be open to all ASEAN players (ASEAN born imports included) while best import is for non-Asean.
No All-ABL team? (but then again, Adriano, Avenido, Rudy, Al cannot be considered for this as they are “imports”, right?)
Stat-wise (ok, stats do not tell the real story):
Avenido:
16.1 ppg 6.7 rpg 2.9 apg , 3 double double games
Double-digit figure scoring on 13 of 15 games (he scored 8 and 5 on the other 2 games)
Attaporn:
14.9 ppg 2.8 rpg 0.7 apg
Double-digit figure scoring on 12 of 15 games (he scored 4, 2, and 2 on the other 3 games)
Seems like Avenido has better stats. But I think he logged in far more minutes – although more minutes does not mean better stats.
But probably Attaporn has the more difficult task of carrying his own team (as LrAngels posted).
It’s like Charles Barkley complaining that it is easier for Bird and Magic to carry their teammates (Worthy, McHale).
“But probably Attaporn has the more difficult task of carrying his own team”
-but its not as difficult as what the asean imports in brunei is doing..remember they only have a six man rotation and play the entire game most of the time..and besides attaporn likes to shoot a lot but not to pass..look at the assist comparison
but for the benefit of the league i accept attaporn as the mvp.. thats the only award they can give to other teams anyway.
@mart. Dude you’re so “dead-on!” when you said that it’s the person that has the more difficult task of carrying his team.
@3stars. That’s true about Brunei, but they’re 5 of them (Brunei imports), Lertmalaiporn is just one person carrying 11 others.
******
I think that’s why none of the Patriots players weren’t able to get the MVP trophy is because if you take one of them out of the game, it would hardly matter because other players would step up. Say, if Rob Wainwright is having an off night, Jerwin Gaco or Warren Ybanez could fill the void.
As for the Tigers, I think if Attaporn is not on their team they might not win a single game at all. Lertmalaiporn kept his team in the game day in and day out, but they always ended up short because this guy really needs a good supporting cast. A Lertmalaiporn-Kruatiwa duo is something to look for next season.
As for the finals MVP, I think it should go to Gabe Freeman. So, I will give him (Freeman) the unofficial award of Best Import of the finals.
To the moderators, I used a bunch of asterisk “*” to divide my response to matt and 3stars, and to add my point of view that is geared to all of us here. No malice intended.
We are not able to follow each of these MVP contenders the entire season. We were not there to witness how they performed every game.
So we tend to compare them using stats and news articles. We can’t see the intangibles these players bring during the game.
The ABL Awards committee should have a better point of view than ours.
“đội bóng rổ Việt Nam sẽ tham gia ABL mùa giải tới
Vietnam might get services of filipino,chinese or french coaches,that will built its roster to ABL.
chúc may mắn
@irangels.. well you have to admit the only reason lertmailaporn won over avenido is because avenido is considered an import.. thats the truth.
for a league that has an mvp from the bottom team tells a lot about the league itself.how can you consider one player valuable if the team itself doesnt have value..doesnt make sense..if you think he has the more difficult task of carrying his own team, difficult or not he failed. but hey whos complaining he is the closest thing the league have that can be considered a local superstar.
Alex Hartman best import not Dixon
@3stars. I concur. There’s certainly a flaw with the criteria on selecting the regular season MVP. However, I am still OK with the award going to a non-Filipino to give confidence and motivation to other ASEAN players that there’s a chance to compete and excel in sport dominated by Pinoys. Also, for Filipino players maintain there highest level of competitiveness.
@CK. I guess if Hartman played well in the finals, he would present a very good case for the league’s Best Import award. For me, I still think that the award should go to Gabe Freeman. Freeman could be said as the last piece of the Patriots’ championship puzzle, but I think if Brandon Powell hand not been replaced, the Patriots could have had a tough time in the playoffs. They might not even get the top seed and home court advantage.
Also, I think there should be a sixth man award too! May be redhoops can start a poll on this.
I think the problem lies in the naming of the award more than the awardee that is causing the confusion. ABL could have been more explicit to name Attaporn Lertmalaiporn as the “local player of the season” than an MVP – it’s two different things.
Lertmalaiporn pipped his team mate Kruatiwa and Satria Muda’s Sitepu for that award, so it’s clearly an award for a local player.
MVP, like 3stars said, one’s value can be reflected in terms of carrying the team to the playoffs or finals despite circumstances such as a lack of depth, and worse without distinction of locals or imports just make the entire award very dubious.
And if the award was an ASEAN player of the season, Avenido would have nicked it. I do believe there are certain selection guidelines to these awards which ABL just hasn’t been transparent about thus leading to these confusion/debates.
Same for the Best ABL Import award, I think Freeman might have missed out on it because he didn’t play “enough” games so to speak, which is usually a selection criteria. Freeman played only 7 games in the inaugural ABL, which is only about 1/3!
whoa?!?! We got instant avatars! Thanks redhoops! Pardon for the off topic comment.
Dixon as best import? both western and asean? no way!
@Saudi Boy. I agree! But, I guess the ABL will fix this sort of a flaw with their criteria next season.
Freeman, best import? are you kidding, he is just a product of ncaa div 2
Freeman became best import in PBA but it does not mean hes outstanding player,like him the batch of import that played in PBA are “bakya”!
@Adobong LA. Come on! Does it mean he played division 2 basketball doesn’t mean Freeman is not good? He was the reigning best import in the PBA.
Another import who did well in the PBA is Lamont Strothers. Strothers played Division 3 basketball, and was one of the few NBA players drafted from a Division 3 program.
In the NBA we got Charles Oakley and Ben Wallace who went to division 2 schools, yet they did very well.
So don’t take Division 2 and 3 players for granted man. Does it mean they didn’t play Division 1-A ball, that does not mean they cannot play.
lamont is div 2 and played for blazers!
freeman,best import in pba? take a looked at the quality of imports not only in those batch but at present!
@Martin. Strothers played Division 3 basketball at Christopher Newport University.
PBA should reconsider adapting FIBA not NBA rules!
Patriots are very weak ensemble and yet champion in recent ABL!
Kami dito sa karagatan, ang pilipino ang nananatiling pinakamahusay na mandaragat, malaki man ang bilang ng bansang tsina at indiya, hindi nila kayang tapatan ang kagalingan at pagmamahal sa trabaho ng marinong pilipino. Long live the Filipino “Sea Dog”,
Ang Pilipino ang nanatili at mananatiling numero uno sa trabahong pang karagatan.
Well Lebron, Kobe, Moses Malone and Garnett never played division 1 College basketball (they went straight from high school) and they are or will be HOFers. = P
seriously speaking:
Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodamn is from Division 2 (I think)