June Mar Fajardo bags 4th straight MVP as Beermen shine in Leo Awards

June Mar Fajardo’s reign as the best player in the PBA continues as he bagged home Most Valuable Player honors for the fourth straight year, Friday evening in the 2017 Leo Awards held at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.

The pride of Pinamungajan, Cebu is now tied with PBA legends Alvin Patrimonio and Ramon Fernandez for the most number of MVP hardwares at four. Moreover, he is the first-ever player to win the plum four straight times.

San Miguel Beermen’s star six-foot-ten slotman, who collected a league-best 38.58 statistical points this season, bested teammates Alex Cabagnot and 2017 Commissioner’s Cup BPC Chris Ross for the top individual award.

Fajardo, Cabagnot, and Ross have locked themselves in the Mythical Five, but Arwind Santos also made a strong case to be included in the selection, thus setting the record for the most number of teammates in a mythical team.

Ross, meanwhile, ran away as this season’s Most Improved Player. The 32-year-old point guard, who had 24.50 SPs, was also named into the All-Defensive Team after averaging a league-leading 2.75 steals per match this season.

Here is the rundown of this year’s Leo Awards:

Most Valuable Player

June Mar Fajardo

First Mythical Team

Chris Ross
Alex Cabagnot
June Mar Fajardo
Japeth Aguilar
Arwind Santos

Second Mythical Team

Jayson Castro
LA Tenorio
Joe Devance
Kelly Williams
Cliff Hodge

All-Defensive Team

Japeth Aguilar
June Mar Fajardo
Gabe Norwood
Jio Jalalon
Chris Ross

Most Improved Player

Chris Ross

Rookie of the Year

Roger Pogoy

Samboy Lim Sportsmanship Award

Gabe Norwood