ABL: Parks bags second Local MVP award

by Jonas Terrado

STA. ROSA, Laguna – Ray Parks Jr. of San Miguel Alab Pilipinas captured the Local Most Valuable Player award for the second straight season while teammate Renaldo Balkman was named co-winner of the Defensive Player of the Year before Game 2 of the ASEAN Basketball League Finals here.

Parks took the Local MVP plum, besting Hong Kong Eastern guard Lee Ki and Singapore Slingers’ center Delvin Goh in runaway fashion. The former National University star averaged 15.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 3.5 assists this season.

Balkman, on the other hand, shared the Defensive Player plum with Singapore’s Chris Charles after playing a major role on the defensive end that helped Alab advance to the finals against Thailand’s Mono Vampire.

The former NBA player, however, fell short on getting the World Import MVP trophy which was won by the sweet-shooting Anthony Tucker of Chong Son Kung Fu.

Chong Son also got two awards courtesy of Fil-American Mikh McKinney as the ASEAN Heritage MVP and Charles Dube-Brais as Coach of the Year.

McKinney edged fellow Fil-foreigners Christian Standhardinger of Hong Kong Eastern and Jason Brickman of Mono Vampire in the ASEAN MVP race while Dube-Brais earned the nod as the best coach over Alab’s Jimmy Alapag, Hong Kong’s Edu Torres, and Mono’s Douglas Marty.