Dozier, Thoss owe individual awards to teammates and coaches

Kerby Raymundo vs Sonny Thoss and Rob Dozier PBA IMAGE / Nuki Sabio

MANILA, Philippines – Alaska’s formidable frontcourt of Rob Dozier and Sonny Thoss played a big part in the Aces’ championship run.

And both Dozier and Thoss’ impact on their team was well recognized Sunday night. The six-foot-nine import edged counterpart Vernon Macklin for the Bobby Parks award while the six-foot-seven Thoss was named Papa John’s PBA Press Corps Finals MVP.

“It feels good but this is not something big for me. When you got stuff like this you got to owe it to your teammates and coaching staff because all those guys sacrificed their game just to allow me to do what I need to do and the coaching staff trusted me to display my talents,” Dozier told INQUIRER.net as he clutched his award, whose near quadruple-double with 27 points, 20 rebounds, seven assists and six blocks validated his best import trophy.

“To me it (Finals MVP) is a nice award but it’s just an icing on the cake. Our main goal was to win the championship and we got it,” said Thoss, who averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds in the Aces’ three-game sweep of Ginebra.

Thoss, who collected 13 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in the close-out game, also said Alaska’s latest championship – the first in the post-Tim Cone era means just the same as his previous title with his former coach.

“Every championship is good whether with coach Luigi or coach Tim, I’m just happy to be back again.”

Dozier, who added that this is his first championship after being close to winning several times in his professional career, the team player that he is, couldn’t stop talking about his teammates.

“We go out and ball, we play together, we trust each other and more importantly we play for each other. Team first and the individual stuff go out the door.”