And by the time Milton gets to Arizona, the BBA finals will be well underway, but before he goes he'll hand out the individual award trophies at half-time of Friday night's game. The recipients were named at a press conference today: the MVP is Orange Walk super guard Mark Quickie Bainton - last year's rookie of the year who led the league in steals and assists this year. Keith Acosta won the scoring title while Kirk Shabba Smith snagged the rebounding trophy. Sixth man honours were awarded to Bart Sanchez. The announcement of the individual honours were timed to coincide with the BBA finals, which tips off on Friday night. The match-up pits the Kremandala Raiders against San Cas UB. It's the fiercest rivalry in the sport - and today the coaches had very different views on how the series will go:
Jules Vasquez
Is there a problem being the, what I would call it, the over-dog, being the favoured team? Is there a risk that you might go in with too much confidence?
Mathew Smiling
I know that normally it is that way, that you go in and you're being favoured by everybody, all the media houses and everybody saying that, you know what, I guess UB is the number one team, but Ahm, no, for us it's not. We are sending up a red flag right away that we are not going in there with any type of confidence. This week, work-out has been fine, everybody, guys been showing up and we just working hard together as a team, and we coming out to perform Friday night to win the championship.
Jules Vasquez
Do you have any predictions?
Mathew Smiling
Like I said in the media and just a few minutes ago. We are looking for 3-0, we don't want this thing to prolong to a third game or a fourth game or a fifth game like the commission's asking. We, one, two and three and we're going home.
Brads Neal
Well, I see a prediction, noh. We'll take you one game at a time.
Mathew Smiling
We're looking forward to playing our style of basketball, which is temporal. We play with a lot of energy, we play tough hard-nosed defense and we love to score the ball, we are probably one of the few teams that shoot the ball with 10 seconds off the shot clock, so we hoping for temporal. We looking to score, we want a high score, entertainment for the fans, that's what we're looking forward to.
Brads Neal
Strength-wise, I think it's our defense. I know we play good team defense and we'll be showing up defensively on Friday night.
Jules Vasquez
Do you feel, is it a burden to try and uphold this, having lost only once, this team having lost only once in the finals, and having won so many?
Brads Neal
I think it's not a burden on myself but a challenge to succeed. As the past Raiders coaches have succeeded, noh. I love the situation that I am in. Most people, I know expect us to lose because we are going up against the giants of UB but, you know, I like the situation.
This years' finals is the first 5 game series in semi-pro basketball history - and it starts on Friday night.