After four long years of serving flag and country through SMART Gilas Pilipinas, June Mar Fajardo finally had his own FIBA moment — in the perfect place and at the perfect time.
The Kraken was unleashed on Monday night in front of 11,444-strong crowd at the SMART Araneta Coliseum, as the Filipino dribblers faced the visiting Chinese-Taipei in the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
Fajardo scored a FIBA career-high 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting along with eight rebounds in over 23 minutes of action, enough to help SMART Gilas repel the Taiwanese, 90-83, and finish the Qualifiers’ first window unblemished.
“Thankful lang ako sa teammates ko at kay coach sa tiwala,” said the reigning four-time PBA Most Valuable Player moments after the bout. “Kailangan lang talaga naming sundin yung game plan namin. [Buti] Nagawa namin.”
Even head coach Chot Reyes could not help but gush over Fajardo’s outing.
“June Mar saved us.
“You know, it’s a big luxury for us to know that we’ve got a guy like June Mar coming off the bench,” said the veteran strategist.
His achievement — which eclipsed his previous FIBA career-high of 15 points that he collected versus Senegal back in the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain — was made even more commendable by the fact that he did it off the bench.
The soft-spoken Cebuano admitted that it was nerve-racking to play as one of the second group, as they had to lift SMART Gilas back from a 5-19 deficit midway the first quarter. But it was a challenge that he simply had to take.
“Medyo [may pressure talaga], pero tiwala lang talaga sa team, sa sistema ni coach, at sa isa’t isa. Buti nakabawi kami sa depensa,” the multi-time PBA champion said.
“Kung ano yung role na binigay ni coach sa akin, tatanggapin ko yun.”
And aside from being one of SMART Gilas’ forerunners in the victory, another thing that made Fajardo the biggest star of Monday night was the way he matched up with the visiting team’s naturalized center Quincy Davis III.
After Davis powered his team to a strong start, Fajardo proved to be the cloud of doom that rained all over the 34-year-old as he drew fouls on him left and right — ighlighted by one play where Fajardo made a shot fake from the post, and Davis bit it hard.
Davis then eventually fouled out with 1:59 left to play.
“Nakatsamba lang,” played down Fajardo of him handling the experienced Davis.
But for sure, Fajardo’s Monday night outing wasn’t just sheer “tsamba lang”. It was the perfect night for him to fulfill his desire of becoming a proven commodity in the global scene.
