Fighting Fajardo on course
IN scoring a game-high 22 points on Friday, June Mar Fajardo is merely continuing a journey long predicted to end in smashing success.
Clearly, he was like a thoroughbred blasting from the starting gates in powering Gilas to a crippling 93-71 rout of Taiwan.
While the win strengthened our chances of snaring a slot in the Fiba World Cup qualifiers, the loss put a damper on Taiwan’s bid to enter the second round after absorbing a second straight loss to Gilas.
Fajardo’s Friday performance was the stuff that easily transforms mortals into living legends.
He made putbacks look easily doable.
He completed bullet-like assists with incredible ease. He buried perimeter shots like a true forward. He even executed a spin move that nearly brought the house down.
Not yet 30 years old, Fajardo’s star can still soar to heights if he stays the course, so to speak.
Already, he has won four Most Valuable Player awards in five years as a San Miguel Beer pillar in the Philippine Basketball Association.
I’ve been a Fajardo watcher from the day he became a Beerman.
Plucked from Pinagbungahan, Cebu, by a mere assistant basketball coach but endowed with eagle eyes to spot a diamond in the rough, Fajardo would, in no time, blossom from a gangling and an erratic novice to a towering rock of stupendous force.
At 6-foot-10, Fajardo has now become the first Filipino to have that unusual height engineered by God into a body with a nearly complete coordination when playing the game we all love so crazily.
All the rest before him, like Carvajal, Bonifacio and Balingit—all growing up also to nearly seven feet like Fajardo—had, somehow, coordi-
nation difficulties and deficient reflexes.
If Fajardo doesn’t end up with 10 MVP trophies by the time he’s done playing, that’s like saying the Philippines will be typhoon-free in 2019.
Meanwhile, Gilas will fight Australia on Monday (July 1) aching to avenge a defeat we suffered in Aussie territory earlier.
It would help that the battle will be held at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan, ensuring home court advantage where friendly cheers are likewise surefire fuel for inspiration to Fajardo & Co.