Onyango voted KBF MVP for the fourth time
Basketball
By
ERICK OCHIENG'
| Feb 16, 2017
Every basketball season ends with surprises ranging from shocking upsets to emerging and most promising players.
But again, there are those individuals and teams whose performance stays evergreen season in season out. One such individual is Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) shooting guard Tobias Onyango.
Onyango, 37, is the oldest player in the dockers stable. But Onyango has defied age and on the pitch he still replicates his marauding ways just like he did 15 years ago.
Therefore, it was not a surprise when Onyango’s name was called out as KBF 2016 season Most Valuable Player (MVP) when the league concluded in Nairobi at the weekend.
Elated Onyango could not believe his ears when his name was called out to receive the prestigious MVP trophy.
This was after he bravely steered KPA to a 79-67 victory in Game Four that saw the dockers lift the 2016 league with a 3-1 aggregate.
Onyango who dazzled at both sides of the pitch scored a game high 18 points in the encounter as his team mate Victor Bosire added 17.
But this is not the first time that Onyango is winning the coveted award. He has stepped on the podium four times to receive the title locally and twice internationally.
He first won the local trophy in 2007 when he was with the now defunct and former KBF champions KCB Lions. He later won the trophy with KCB Lions in 2008 and 2010.
Prior to winning the trophy at home, Onyango’s ability had been recognised regionally which saw him voted MVP twice in 2005 and 2006, during the Fiba Africa Zone V Clubs Basketball Championship with KCB Lions which was by that time a basketball powerhouse in Kenya.
Onyango attributes the entire wins to his coaches at KCB and at KPA and fellow players for without their efforts he wouldn’t have been in his element to be considered for the awards.
“I believe the reason I have always won is not only based on my performance at the pitch but also the qualities that I posses as an older player at KPA.I am like a big brother to all the players, I advice them and they respects me,” said Onyango who is an Assistant Manager, Retail Banking with KCB in Kianyaga town, Kirinyaga County.