Bobby Ray Parks, Jr. had a monster season inside the PBA bubble.
Despite missing the last four games of the 2020 PBA Philippine Cup Finals, the 6-foot-4 guard put up numbers of 22.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game. Definitely, he was the pound-for-pound stats leader for the season.
However, the second generation did not win the Best Player of the Conference award, nor was he part of the Elite Five.
How did that happen? Well, unlike in the majority of the country’s leagues, the PBA’s award system is different.
Stats are just one part of the equation since media, player, and league official votes also have weight.
Statistical points make up the majority of the criteria at 40-percent. PBA Press Corps votes are set at 30-percent followed by 25-percent coming from the players and five-percent for the league office.
For the All-PBA bubble team, that had an allocation for two guards, Parks was not even in the top three.
Ginebra’s Stanley Pringle and Phoenix’s Matthew Wright were above the competition in the tally, while Parks’ teammate Pogoy was a distant third.
PBA SEASON 45 ELITE FIVE | |||||
| BACKCOURT | |||||
| NAME | STATS | MEDIA | PLAYERS | PBA | TOTAL |
| PRINGLE, Stanley | 225 | 361 | 39 | 100 | 725 |
| WRIGHT, Matthew | 230 | 462 | 23 | 715 | |
| POGOY, Roger | 230 | 9 | 100 | 339 | |
Come the Best Player of the Conference race, it went down to Pringle versus Wright in what was the closest race since 1994, according to league statistician Fidel Mangonon.
PBA SEASON 45 BEST PLAYER OF THE CONFERENCE | |||||
| NAME | STATS | MEDIA | PLAYERS | PBA | TOTAL |
| PRINGLE, Stanley | 641 | 632 | 67 | 300 | 1,640 |
| WRIGHT, Matthew | 657 | 868 | 53 | 1,578 | |
| POGOY, Roger | 657 | 141 | 10 | 150 | 958 |
| PARKS, Bobby Ray | 704 | 118 | 4 | 50 | 876 |
| ABUEVA, Calvin | 684 | 59 | 36 | 779 | |
| PEREZ, CJ | 658 | 10 | 668 | ||
Despite being the stats leader, earning 704 points, Parks only received 118 media votes, 50 (third-place vote) from the PBA, and just four votes among his peers.
Wright had the media’s nod with 868 points and was second among his fellow players with 53. However, the Fil-Canadian was not in the PBA’s top three that resulted in his 657 points in the stats race being negated by eventual winner Pringle.
Pringle had the full 300 points from the PBA, was tops among the players with 67, and second from the PBA Press Corps with 632. It was enough to catapult his 641 statistical points to the top and the BPC trophy.
There’s a saying that stats don’t lie but in the pro leagues, sometimes they do.
