Basketball team rewarded with new apartment each for winning NS Matrix Agong Cup

Some of the receipients and family members after receiving the keys to their apartments from Datuk Seri Lee Tian Hock (second from right). Also present was Lee's wife Datin Seri Yong Chou Lian (right)

SEPANG: Wong Yi Hou and Ting Chun Hong, who are teammates in the NS Matrix Agong Cup basketball team, are now certain they made the right decision to pick up the game years ago when they were rewarded handsomely after their team emerged national champion for the third consecutive time.

It was a moment to remember for the friends, both aged 26, and seven other teammates when they received keys to an apartment each at the Horizon Suites development in Bandar SunSuria worth RM320,000 from developer Datuk Seri Lee Tian Hock for winning the tournament for the third consecutive time in 2018.

Wong and Ting were also in the same team when they won the tournament after a lapse of 58 years in 2016.

Then each player received a car worth RM70,000 and RM10,000 from Lee.

The following year, the team won it again and this time, each player was again rewarded by Lee with a RM100,000 reward.

It was at the second rewards ceremony in early 2018 that Lee promised the team that they would each be given an apartment at the Horizon Suites development, located near the KL International Airport, if they made it a hattrick of wins.

Buoyed by Lee's pledge, the team gave their all and emerged victorious again.

Lee, who is founder of Matrix Concepts Holdings Bhd, then made yet another pledge and promised the players another apartment worth RM350,000 each in Kuala Lumpur if they won it for the fourth consecutive time.

Further motivated by this, NS Matrix made history when they went on to win the tournament again in 2019.

Wong, who has been playing for NS Matrix for the past seven years, was lost for words when met after visiting his unit located on the 18th floor of the development.

"I am so thankful to Datuk Seri Lee for rewarding us handsomely and I must say he has done so much to promote basketball.

"He is such a generous man and has only motivated us to become better players through hard work," he said, adding that he would probably lease the unit for now.

Ting, who has been with the team for the past 11 years, said such a reward system would surely make the game more popular.

"Lee had also hired a foreign coach to help us become better players.

"The future looks good for the game and it is individuals like Datuk Seri Lee who make it happen," he said.

Lee said he was happy for being able to fulfil his pledge.

He said the Horizon Suites project was completed late last year and each of the small office/home office serviced apartment unit measuring 478sq ft was worth RM280,000.

"I then decided to spend another RM40,000 to furnish each unit and all the new owners can actually move in immediately.

"It is also my hope that more corporations will be able to come up with a reward system so that we can take the game to a higher level and make Malaysia a force to be reckoned with in the region," he said.

Lee said he also decided to reward the players so that they can have a better future.

"Most sportsmen and sportswomen are already looking at retirement from their respective sport when in their early 30s and after that, many do not have a fixed paying income.

"So, by rewarding them like this, they can focus on the sport when they are at their peak and will also have something to fall back on in the later years," he said.

Lee said to further promote the game, he would also reward each player of the national basketball team RM50,000 if they won the gold medal at the next SEA Games.

Each player would get RM20,000 if they won the silver medal and RM10,000 for bronze.

Apart from coaches Brian Joseph Lester and Tan Kok Heng, the other players who received the apartment at Horizon Suites are Kuek Tian Yuan, Teo Kok Hou, Thong Ching Chan, Mak Lok Seng, Lim Perry Lee, Chang Zi Fueng and Yeo Ivan.

Lee said six players and two coaches would receive the keys to their apartments in Kuala Lumpur by the end of this year.

He said not all players from the team that won the Agong Cup's for the fourth consecutive time would get the unit as some had moved to other teams.