Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Makoto Hiejima leads EASL individual awardees for 2025-26 season


The East Asia Super League officially revealed its biggest batch of awardees, led by Utsunomiya Brex's Makoto Hiejima.

Hiejima claimed the EASL Spalding Finals MVP nod after steering the B.LEAGUE powerhouse to the title in the EASL Finals, averaging 13.3 points, four rebounds, and 5.3 assists, while also shooting 60% from beyond the arc. During the group stage, Hiejima averaged 14.7 points and made a total of fifteen three-pointers.

Joining Hiejima in the 2025-26 All-EASL Team are his Brex teammate DJ Newbill, Lu Chun-Hsiang and Will Artino of the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots, with Jack Cooley completing the quintet from the Ryukyu Golden Kings. This is based from the evaluation of player performance from the regular season and the postseason, which includes both gametime availability and overall impact to his team.

Newbill averaged 23.2 points and 7.7 assists, while Cooley averaged 20.5 points and ten rebounds for the Golden Kings in the finals, becoming the first player to reach two hundred career rebounds this season.

Artino led the Pilots in rebounding during the regular season with 10.2 per game.

Lu is the only returnee to the team as the only local to lead his team in scoring and became the first local and second player in EASL history to reach three hundred career points.

Alec Brown made history as the league's inaugural Defensive Player of the Year, The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots big man led the EASL in blocks during the group stage with 2.2, while netting an average of 1.3 during the finals. In the process, he emerged as the all-time leader in rejections in the history of the league.

In his second season with the Pilots, he also claimed the Import Player of the Year in his current stint with Pilots at the P.LEAGUE+.

Joining Brown in the inaugural 2025-26 All-EASL Defensive Team are Newbill and Shinji Takashima of the Utsunomiya Brex, Jameel Warney of the Seoul SK Knights, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson of the Meralco Bolts.

Newbill and Takashima formed a tenacious backcourt for the Brex in their run to the title, averaging a combined 3.2 steals to make things difficult for the opposition.

Warney was a force as the Knights, ending up in the top ten for blocks in the regular season and was one of four players to average at least a block and a steal in multiple games.

Completing the team is RH-J, who was the only EASL player to average a steal and two blocks before his injuries curtailed his campaign for the Bolts.

Capping off the new awardees as the Sixth Man of the Year is Li Chia-Kang, coming off the bench for Taoyuan to finish fourth in the team in three-pointers made and fifth in total points. In the process he adding this award to his Sixth Man of the Year nod that he received during the P.LEAGUE+ campaign.

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