By REYNALD MAGALLON
June Mar Fajardo added another award to an already swelling collection of hardware, winning a record-extending 12th Best Player of the Conference plum before Game 4 of the San Miguel-TNT Finals series at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday, July 20.
As if winning the top individual honors is becoming habitual for the Cebuano gentle giant, Fajardo ran away with the award once more, besting teammate CJ Perez, NLEX’s Robert Bolick, Phoenix’s Jason Perkins and Magnolia’s Zav Lucero.
Fajardo amassed a total of 1085 points – 489 of which came after topping the statistical race, 505 after being unanimously voted by the scribes regularly covering the games, and 91 from the votes of players.
It is now the second BPC award for Fajardo after he also won the Governors’ Cup version of the award, further strengthening his bid for what could be another record-extending ninth Most Valuable Player award.
Fajardo is averaging 16.0 points, 13.95 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 0.6 steals, and 1.1 blocks through the eliminations and the playoffs until the semifinals.
The 35-year-old behemoth is looking to tow SMB to another Philippine Cup title, highlighted by a 33-point, 11-rebound performance in Game 3 to give the Beermen a 2-1 lead heading into Sunday’s game.
Far behind second was Perez who earned 704 points – 437 from the stats, 239 from media votes and 28 from the players.
Bolick actually finished second in the statistical ranking with 453 points but fell behind in the race with NLEX failing to advance in the semifinals. He received 86 points from the media and 23 from the players for a 562 points total.
Lucero came in third with 459 points (435-9-15) while Perkins had 441 points (436-2-3).
