Bogut's bizarre stunt as fellow big-man accepts award on his behalf
Newly-crowned NBL most valuable player Andrew Bogut has drawn a mixed response for a bizarre stunt at Sunday night's awards ceremony when he sent Sydney Kings back-up centre Dane Pinaeu onto the stage to accept his defensive player of the year gong.
Bogut, a noted stirrer with a big following on social media who enjoys engaging in online sparring battles and trying to get reactions from both public identities and unknown critics, apparently wrote a speech for Pinaeu to read during the ceremony in Melbourne.
When the defensive player of the year award was announced, Pinaeu headed to the stage to read a speech that seemed intended to reflect the type of interaction Bogut often encounters, including deliberately mispronouncing his surname.
"What a night. It's great to have all the players here," Pineau began. "People come up to me all the time and say 'Bogart, how do you do it?'"
"And to those people I say 'shut up, I ask the questions around here. You want to talk to me, you send me a tweet'.
"It's incredible to get this award, it means not only am I a really good defensive player, it means I’m the best defensive player in the whole league, and that means a lot. It's close to my heart.
"It means I'm good in five-on-five, four-on-four, three-on-three, two-on-two and one-on-one. I'm the best. I would put 10k on it."
Bogut, who has more than 374,000 followers on Twitter, has had a number of public run-ins on the social media platform in recent years, including a stoush with Australian women's star Liz Cambage and Perth Wildcats centre Angus Brandt, who infamously labelled Bogut a "pork chop".
As he continued, Pinaeu made a reference to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team Bogut was traded to in 2017 but only lasted 56 seconds on court before breaking his leg.
Bogut, the son of Croatian immigrants, also appeared to make a reference to ethnic stereotypes.
"I've got a lot of people to thank, to get me up here tonight. Number one would have to be the Cleveland Cavaliers, an organisation that really shaped me into the player I am today," he said.
"My major sponsors, the King of Kebabs in Parramatta and Auburn, but not Bondi, those guys are dogs. Anyway thank you very much, I hope you have a great night."
Bogut made light of the stunt later in the night.
“It looks like it’s getting some traction on social media, so Dane’s pretty happy with himself," he told reporters.
“I don’t think the NBL is too happy with me at the moment, but we’ll kiss and make up later.”
The fact the NBL tweeted the moment would suggest they weren't too bothered by it.
Bogut was fronting the media on Monday as part of the launch of the NBL's upcoming finals series, when his Kings will take on defending champions Melbourne United in the semi-finals.