Patriots reap major awards

KUALA LUMPUR – The Philippine Patriots’ Warren Ybanez bagged the Finals MVP honors, Jason Dixon captured the Best Import award and the rest of the team received their championship rings in the ABL Championship Presentation Dinner here Tuesday.

Ybanez, a hard-nosed player who had had a stint with Red Bull in the PBA, beat teammates Rob Wainwright and Jerwin Gaco for the Finals MVP plum while Dixon was named Best Import, winning over Singapore’s Kyle Jeffers and Indonesia’s Nakiea Miller.

One award, however, slipped away from the Patriots as Thailand Tigers’ Attaporn Lertmalaiporn clinched the ABL League MVP title.

The biggest toast, however, belonged to the whole Philippine Patriots team for its triumphant campaign in the inaugural ABL season capped by its three-game sweep of the Satria Muda BritAma-Indonesia in the best-of-five finale.

Team owners Mikee Romero and Tony Boy Cojuangco were on hand to receive the championship trophy in the glittery rites graced by the other ABL team owners, sponsors and founding chief Tony Fernandes of Air Asia.

The team owners had a meeting before the awards ceremony, discussing how they can make ABL games more exciting for its second season starting October.

The plan is to allow the ball clubs to field one more import coming from Asian powerhouse teams like China, Lebanon, Iran and Korea.

In the inaugural tourney, the competing teams were allowed to field two international imports plus recruits from Asean neighbor countries. Thus, Filipino players like Kiko Adriano, Rensy Bajar, Rudy Lingganay, Don Camaso, Leo Avenido, Al Vergara and Axel Doruelo got the chance to play as imports for the other ABL squads.

More Filipino players are expected to see action in the second ABL season as another team from Indonesia and a new ball club from Vietnam have signified their intention to join the league.

Fernandes, a Malaysian billionaire who has also invested in F1 racing, said the ABL is committed to improve the growth of basketball in the region by implementing professional management and marketing savvy to promote and expand the fan base of the sport.

The Air Asia chief executive officer expects tremendous support and a huge profile of followers for ABL in the next few years.

Romero and Cojuangco, meanwhile, reaffirmed their commitment to the league.

The two Filipino businessmen-sportsmen may well become more active members of the league once they finalize a deal with Fernandes for their entry into Air Asia – a giant in budget flights in the Asian region.

Romero, Cojuangco and Fernandes have been talking for the establishment of Air Asia Philippines, starting with a fleet of five aircraft.

At present, Air Asia operates 92 planes, a huge improvement from the time Fernandes took over the business with only two aircraft eight years ago.