Allen misses out on league MVP award

Winnipeg Sea Bears guard Teddy Allen has come up short in his bid to win a second career CEBL Most Valuable Player award — and he’s not happy about it.

The league revealed its award winners Thursday, with Scarborough Shooting Stars guard Myles Powell taking home the MVP honours over Allen who was the finalist out of the Western Conference.

Powell, who was also named the Clutch Player of the Year with nine target score winners, averaged 22.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists while leading Scarborough to a historic 20-4 record.

“A dude who averaged 23 on 38 per cent. You will never see me again. Lost ya credibility,” Allen commented on Instagram.

“38 per cent… I think a hobo off street could do that.”

Powell responded to Allen’s criticism: “League’s in good hands. Don’t worry, I’ll hold it down.”

Allen, the 2023 CEBL MVP during his first stint in Winnipeg, led the league in scoring with 27.8 points while shooting 45.8 per cent from the field. He also contributed 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 steals per game. The Sea Bears went 14-10 to finish second in the West before going on to win the CEBL title.

Allen, a 28-year-old from Phoenix, Ariz., was unavailable for the post-season after he was assaulted at a downtown Winnipeg nightclub earlier this month.

Sea Bears guard and CEBL finals MVP Xavier Moon also shared his displeasure with the announcement online.

“No shade or disrespect toward Myles cause he was definitely killing but there’s no way (Allen) didn’t win MVP,” commented Moon.

The only honour the Sea Bears received was Allen being named to the All-CEBL First Team. Sea Bears head coach Mike Raimbault was a strong contender for Coach of the Year after guiding the club to a franchise-best record despite only having Moon for the final five regular-season games.

Scarborough head coach Tyrell Vernon received the nod instead.

The Shooting Stars cleaned up with Frank Mitchell being named the Sixth Man of the Year and with Kellen Tynes earning Defensive Player of the Year.

Votes are cast by head coaches, general managers, assistant coaches, select league broadcasters, and internal media personnel based on regular season performance. Team representatives are prohibited from voting for a player or head coach from their own team.

“I don’t really know how the voting went down; I didn’t see any of the results or any of those things,” head coach Mike Raimbault told the Free Press. “That’s the opinion of other people in the league. I don’t necessarily agree with it, obviously, but I think the other thing with those awards — if you win 20 games (Scarborough went 20-4 during the regular season), you had a great season.

“I’ve certainly voted in times for people that maybe played on more successful teams with lesser numbers because I value winning, but I thought he would have had a good shot at winning that award, and he didn’t.”

— with files from Joshua Frey-Sam

winnipegfreepress.com/taylorallen