Basketball New Zealand

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Tall Black captain Pero Cameron (Photosport)

Kiwis and NZ Breaker players feature among nominations in four of the major award categories for the Australian Hummer NBL Championship.

Tall Black Craig Bradshaw (Brisbane Bullets) is among the frontrunners for Rookie of the Year, while national team captain Pero Cameron (Gold Coast Blaze), international team-mates Phill Jones and Mika Vukona (both Breakers) and Canterbury point guard Jeremy Kench (Wollongong Hawks) are among those contesting Best Sixth Man honours.

Retiring Tall Black Dillon Boucher (Brisbane) will challenge for Best Defensive Player. Vukona, Harbour guard Hayden Allen (Singapore Slingers) and Tall Black forward Casey Frank (Gold Coast) are among those in the Most Improved Player reckoning.

Breakers import Oriene Greene is listed among the defensive nominees, while Aussie Oscar Forman is in contention for most improved.

Each of the NBL’s 13 teams was able to nominate a maximum of two players from their own roster for each of the four award categories. In all, 14 players were nominated by their clubs for rookie honours, 20 for best sixth man, 19 for best defensive player and 19 for most improved.

Voting for the award winners is currently underway, with the head coach, one assistant coach and one captain from each team having the chance to cast 3-2-1 votes for their preferred choices. Voters are not allowed to vote for players from their own team in the final balloting process. The player who receives the highest vote total when all ballots are counted will be declared the winner and announced during the finals series.

Other awards that will be announced during the 2008 NBL Finals series include the Andrew Gaze Trophy for the NBL’s Most Valuable Player, the All-NBL First, Second and Third Teams, Referee of the Year and the Lindsay Gaze Trophy for Coach of the Year. None of these other awards required clubs to nominate players.

The coveted Andrew Gaze Trophy will take on an additional luster this season, with the winner to also receive a brand new H3 luxury car from HUMMER valued at over $60,000.

All of the NBL’s major awards will be presented at the 2008 NBL Awards Ceremony at the Melbourne Aquarium on 20 March.

The full lists of nominees are …

Rookie of the Year

Blake Borgia (Sydney)

Craig Bradshaw (Brisbane)

Erik Burdon (Adelaide)

Nic Campbell (Gold Coast)

Tyson Demos (Gold Coast)

Jordan Dodman (Adelaide)

Nathan Herbert (South)

Dan Jackson (Wollongong)

Blagoj Janev (Singapore)

Nathan Jawai (Cairns)

Matthew Knight (West Sydney)

Alex Loughton (Perth)

Damian Martin (West Sydney)

Adrian Sturt (Melbourne)

Best Sixth Man

Matthew Burston (South)

Pero Cameron (Gold Coast)

Scott Cook (Cairns)

Lanard Copeland (Adelaide)

Dontaye Draper (Sydney)

Troy DeVries (West Sydney)

Russell Hinder (Sydney)

Mick Hill (Brisbane)

Stephen Hoare (Melbourne)

Blagoj Janev (Singapore)

Phill Jones (New Zealand)

Daniel Joyce (Gold Coast)

Jeremy Kench (Wollongong)

Darren Ng (Adelaide)

Cameron Rigby (Wollongong)

Brad Robbins (Perth)

Kelvin Robertson (Townsville)

Dwayne Vale (Cairns)

Mika Vukona (New Zealand)

Drew Williamson (Townsville)

Best Defensive Player

Chris Anstey (Melbourne)

Gary Boodnikoff (Cairns)

Dillon Boucher (Brisbane)

Ben Castle (Wollongong)

David Cooper (Adelaide)

Brad Davidson (Adelaide)

John Fitzgerald (Singapore)

Aaron Grabau (Cairns)

Orien Greene (New Zealand)

Russell Hinder (Sydney)

Jacob Holmes (South)

Daniel Joyce (Gold Coast)

Alex Loughton (Perth)

Darryl McDonald (Melbourne)

Scott McGregor (Gold Coast)

Cameron Rigby (Wollongong)

Jason Smith (Sydney)

Galen Young (Townsville)

Damian Martin (West Sydney)

Most Improved Player

Hayden Allen (Singapore)

David Barlow (Melbourne)

Michael Cedar (Townsville)

Scott Cook (Cairns)

David Cooper (Adelaide)

Nathan Crosswell (Melbourne)

Graeme Dann (West Sydney)

Larry Davidson (Wollongong)

Ebi Ere (Brisbane)

Oscar Forman (New Zealand)

Casey Frank (Gold Coast)

Jacob Holmes (South)

Luke Kendall (Sydney)

Darren Ng (Adelaide)

Brad Robbins (Perth)

Cameron Tovey (Sydney)

Cameron Tragardh (Wollongong)

Dwayne Vale (Cairns)

Mika Vukona (New Zealand)