For fourth-year pro Greg Slaughter, winning the Best Player of the Conference honor of the 2017 Governors’ Cup means more than just proving that he is the best player in the season-ending competition.
Bringing home one of the most coveted individual awards in the 42-year old league is nothing but fulfilling for the Filipino-American, knowing that he had gone through one of his toughest battles — his ACL injury, which had sidelined him for months.
“I just hope it’s inspiring to people who got major injuries like that,” said the seven-foot Slaughter about his newly-won hardware, “When I first got that injury, it was kind of disappointing for me because it’s my first game back.
“It took a long time and I was separated from the team for a while, but I hope it just shows that you can always come back stronger from a setback.”
Making this night much sweeter for Slaughter was that he and the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel are now ahead of the Meralco Bolts 2-0 in their best-of-seven Finals series after an 86-76 victory.
“Tonight, we got another win,” shared the 28-year-old, who only had three points on six shots and six rebounds in Game Two.
“That’s what we’re looking up to do. We’re up 2-0 so we’ll look to get one more on Wednesday.”
The Cebuano center’s coronation as the conference’s top performer is all done. And now, the Ateneo de Manila University product is fully shifting his focus to a bigger goal: helping the Gin Kings extend their reign in the Governor’s Cup.
“Individual award or not, we want to win the championship,” claimed the 29-year-old Slaughter.
“That’s just been our goal since the beginning of the conference.”
