Fajardo cops BPC award
For San Miguel Beer ace player June Mar Fajardo, a record fifth PBA Most Valuable Player award is virtually in the bag.
Another MVP citation for Fajardo is now everything but a mere formality after the Cebuano behemoth nailed his second Best Player of the Conference plum in the season before Game Four of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Fajardo just raised the bar higher in terms of individual achievements in the local pro league with his seventh BPC trophy in six seasons in pro play.
It’s his first in the Commissioner’s Cup, going with five in the Philippine Cup and one in the Governors Cup.
PBA commissioner Willie Marcial, PBA governors Alfrancis Chua, Robert Non and Bobby Rosales, and Dr. Junjun Kaw and Ariana Kaw of Universal Canning Inc. were on hand to award Fajardo the PBA-Masters Sardines BPC crown.
Sharing the spotlight with Fajardo was Barangay Ginebra’s Justin Brownlee as Best Import, winning a tight fight with San Miguel Beer’s Renaldo Balkman.
With two BPC awards in the season and his insurmountable lead in the cumulative stats race, there could well be no stopping Fajardo from stretching his reign as the league’s best player to a fifth straight year.
In 2005, Eric Menk also won the BPC plums in the first two conferences and went on to claim the season’s MVP award although missing the Governors Cup.
Thus in a few months, Fajardo could well become the league’s first five-time MVP winner. To move down to second place in the ladder would be four-time winners Ramon Fernandez and Alvin Patrimonio.
Fajardo was the runaway winner in the stats race and drew the nod of the media, his fellow players and the PBA Commissioner ’s Office for a total of 1,153 points.
Alaska Milk’s Vic Manuel was the runnerup with 766 points, with Stanley Pringle of Global Port coming in third with 545, Sean Anthony, also a Batang Pier, with 384 and Chris Newsome of Meralco with 360.
After two runner-up finishes in the Best Import race in the midseason tourney, Brownlee finally emerged on top with 1,209 points as against Balkman’s 858, Reggie Johnson’s 650 and Diamon Simpson’s 491.
Until Fajardo’s arrival, Fernandez and Patrimonio were the league barometers with their identical four MVP hauls.
Fernandez was the winner in 1982, 1984, 1986 and 1988 while Patrimonio had his MVP harvests in 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1997.
But Fajardo is fast distinguishing himself as the most dominant best player of all time.
Fajardo is on course to winning a fifth MVP award at a tender age of 28.