At just 28 years of age, June Mar Fajardo now stands alone at the top of the Best Player of the Conference table, as he received the 2018 Galvalume 55-PBA Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference trophy, Wednesday evening at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
The 6-foot-11 big man from Pinamungajan, Cebu first BPC trophy came during the 2014–15 Philippine Cup. He then bagged the 2015 Governors’, 2015–16 Philippine, 2016–17 Philippine, and 2017 Commissioner’s BPCs afterwards.
And just like in the last three Philippine Cups, the sixth-year pro was the runaway winner for the top citation for the conference.
Fajardo amassed 44.2 statistical points, averaging 22.9 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 1.81 blocks per game to lead the San Miguel Beermen to the Finals. He tallied 1279 PV with 468 coming from stats, 551 from media votes, 110 from player votes, and a maximum 150 from the PBA office.
Japeth Aguilar is a far second in the race with 36.7 SPs. Close behind Aguilar is Fajardo’s teammate Arwind Santos. The former league MVP was second in blocks with an average of 1.88 per game to go along with norms of 15.76 points, 9.94 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.65 steals.
GlobalPort’s Stanley Pringle and Blackwater’s JP Erram complete the top five, tallying 36.1 and 35.3 SPs respectively.
Even if he has already eclipsed his mentor Danny Ildefonso’s record, the soft-spoken center continues to keep his feet on the ground.
“Sino mage-expect non, ‘di ba? Ano lang ba naman ako dati,” he reflected.
“Wala akong hilig sa basketball, tapos ngayon mabe-break ko na yung record ng mga magagaling sa PBA. Nakaka-proud sa sarili.”
