NBL Recognises Abercrombie and Delany as Finalists in End of Season Awards

Sky Sport Breakers stars Tom Abercrombie and Finn Delany have both been named finalists in the NBL’s 2021 end-of-season awards.

Delany, who was named the club’s MVP last week, is a finalist in the Most Improved Player category alongside the Kings’ Jordan Hunter and Sam Froling from the Hawks.

Abercrombie, who claimed the Breakers’ Best Defensive Player Award, is now in line to pick up the league’s Damien Martin Trophy too for his heroics on defence this season.

He is up against Justin Simon from the Hawks and the Wildcats’ Mitch Norton.

Bryce Cotton, Tyler Harvey and Nathan Sobey are the three finalists for The Andrew Gaze Most Valuable Player (MVP).

Wildcats superstar Cotton is looking to win his second straight MVP and third in the past four seasons.

Harvey helped lead the Illawarra Hawks back to the Hungry Jack’s NBL Finals for the first time since 2017 while Brisbane Bullets star Sobey is second in the league in scoring at 21.2 points per game.

The winner of The Andrew Gaze MVP Award, along with all other NBL awards for the 2020/21 season, will be announced on Wednesday June 16.

The Andrew Gaze MVP Awards will be broadcast live on ESPN at 10pm next Wednesday.

The full list of finalists is as follows:

Lindsay Gaze Coach of the Year

Brian Goorjian (Illawarra Hawks) Dean Vickerman (Melbourne United) Trevor Gleeson (Perth Wildcats)

Most Improved Player

Finn Delany (Sky Sport New Zealand Breakers) Jordan Hunter (Sydney Kings)
Sam Froling (Illawarra Hawks)

Best Sixth Man Presented by Marsh

Jo Lual-Acuil (Melbourne United)
Kyle Adnam (South East Melbourne Phoenix) Scotty Hopson (Melbourne United)

Damian Martin Trophy for the Best Defensive Player

Justin Simon (Illawarra Hawks)
Mitch Norton (Perth Wildcats)
Tom Abercrombie (Sky Sport New Zealand Breakers)

Rookie of the Year Presented by Champion

Dejan Vasiljevic (Sydney Kings)

Josh Giddey (Adelaide 36ers)

Justinian Jessup (Illawarra Hawks)

Other awards to be announced include Most Outstanding Media Coverage, Referee of the Year Presented by Europcar, Gametime by Kmart Award Presented by Kmart, Fans MVP Presented by Chemist Warehouse, All-NBL First Team Presented by Bunnings Trade, All-NBL Second Team Presented by Bunnings Trade and Executive of the Year.

A panel of experts selected nominees for the MVP, Rookie of the Year, Best Sixth Man, Best Defensive Player and Most Improved Player.

Coaches and captains from each of the nine teams then voted on the nominations with no coach or captain allowed to vote for a player from their own team.

Hungry Jack’s NBL Commissioner Jeremy Loeliger said: “In what has been a season like no other and one with numerous challenges, something that hasn’t changed is the world class quality of basketball on display in the NBL.  

The panel of experts for the awards comprised of Andrew Gaze, Casey Frank, Greg Davis, Olgun Uluc, Jo Healy, John Casey, Lachlan Reid, Liam Santamaria and Matt Logue.