One of the most prestigious player awards in basketball is the Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the season.
The Sal's NBL has a voting system that has been in place for two seasons (men's competition) and is new to the women's competition this season.
After each game played during the regular season each Head Coach awards 5 votes to the player they deemed to have been the best in the game, followed by 4 votes to the next player, and so on, down to 1 vote for the player they deemed to have been the fifth best player in the game game.
These votes are published immediately after every game and the League provides a daily leaderboard for fans to follow.
The maximum votes awarded in a game is 30, and the most any player can be awarded is 10 votes.
Each coach must also include a minimum of two players from the opposition team in their voting.
At the end of the regular season, the top 10 vote-getters from the regular season then go through to a final round of voting. This voting is done by a selected panel made up of every Head Coach and a number of independent people who have attended most, or all games during the regular season.
The final voting is conducted with each panel member awarding 10 votes to the player they deem to be the season MVP, 9 votes for their second choice, and so on down to 1 vote for the player they deem to be 10th best on the list of the top 10 vote-getters from the regular season.
The system has proven to be effective and prevents a coach from 'stacking' votes all for one player during the regular season, instead it puts the top 10 players through and provides a full panel with the chance to cast the final MVP vote.
The MVP Voting Panel for the 2020 Sal's NBL 18IN18 will be;
Jody Cameron (Coach - Harbour Breeze)
Gavin Briggs (Coach - Otago Gold Rush)
Mel Downer (Coach - Canterbury Wildcats)
Aik Ho (Coach - Auckland Dream)
Leanne Walker (Coach - Waikato Wizards)
Deslea Wrathal (Coach - Capital Swish)
Mike Lacey (Independent Journalist)
Huw Beynon (Sky Sports Commentator)
Justin Nelson (NBL General Manager)
