June Mar Fajardo copped the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup Best Player of the Conference award at the expense of his good pal Japeth Aguilar.
Yet the league’s only eight-time MVP acknowledges how solid his counterpart has been in the tournament, which has helped the new-look Ginebra a lot.
“Maganda rin ‘yung naging conference ni Japeth,” he said moments after collecting his 11th BPC on Sunday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Aguilar embraced his role as the Barangay’s lead big man after the team traded Christian Standhardinger and Stanley Pringle to Terrafirma last July in a deal that also involved a swap of the third and 10th picks of the 2024 Draft.
Showing as much through his on-court performances, he helped the Kings finish third in Group B of the elimination round to reach the quarterfinals, where they went on to sweep long-time rival Meralco in the best-of-5 series.
Ginebra then returned to the semis, beating San Miguel in six games in a triumph that also strengthened his case for the BPC award.
The 37-year-old was among the candidates for the award with 32.2 statistical points (SPs) behind per-game averages of 18.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.4 assists entering the Finals against another long-time rival in TNT.
Yet Fajardo couldn’t be stopped in taking it home as he garnered a total of 989 points built on stats (465) and votes from the media (476) and players (48).
He won it in runaway fashion as well, with Aguilar a distant second in the race with 664 points to his name although he got the players’ votes with 77.
Still, the Cebuano star would have preferred to be in the position of his long-time Gilas Pilipinas teammate instead — playing in the Finals, that is.
“Ayun talaga ‘yung goal eh, ‘yung makaabot sa Finals at makakuha ng championship,” said the 10-time champion. “Ito, consolation.”
But for now, he’ll settle. It’s still a blessing, after all, aside from the fact that he has more than doubled the old record (five) for most BPCs won by a player.
“Sa’kin na lang muna ‘yung BPC, sa kanya na lang muna ‘yung championship,” quipped the 34-year-old Fajardo with a chuckle.
