Fajardo zeroes in on 8th MVP crown; Holt leads rookie derby
June Mar Fajardo emerges as the frontrunner in the PBA Most Valuable Player derby following a stellar performance in their Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals series against Magnolia recently. | PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PBA
It may be a little bit early, but June Mar Fajardo is on track to further expand his greatness by winning his eighth Philippine Basketball Association Most Valuable Player award.
Fajardo, who had a stellar campaign when San Miguel Beer beat Magnolia in the best-of-seven finals series of the Commissioner's Cup recently, leads the MVP derby with 40.9 statistical points built on 16.2 points, 12.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.3 blocks, and 1.1 steals per game.
The feat was impressive as he is coming off a hand injury that sidelined him in the second half of the recent import-laced conference. With that, he failed to bag an individual award as his teammate CJ Perez emerged with the Best Player of the Conference and Finals MVP honors during the Beermen's emphatic run to the title.
After recovering from a metacarpal fracture of the fourth digit, Fajardo also played hurt as he suffered a calf injury in Game 4 of their finals series with the Hotshots.
But now that the Beermen's 29th PBA title is already secured, the gentle giant from Cebu was advised to rest for two weeks to give him time to recover for the Philippine Cup, which kicks off on 28 February.
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With that, Fajardo will not be around when Gilas Pilipinas battles Hong Kong on Thursday and Chinese Taipei on Monday in the first window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.
Fajardo vows to rest well and recover so that he can also catch up on Gilas practices for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia from 2 to 7 July.
"I'm sad because I really wanted to play for Gilas. For now, I'm doing my best to heal up and join the practices as soon as possible," the 6-foot-10 Fajardo said.
Trailing Fajardo in the MVP derby is Christian Standhardinger of Barangay Ginebra, who posted 35.7 SPs while Perez of the Beermen is in third place with 35.4 SPs.
NorthPort's Arvin Tolentino, the leading scorer in the eliminations of the Commissioner's Cup, came in fourth place with 35.1 SPs followed by Calvin Oftana of TNT at fifth with 34.1 SPs.
Rounding out the Top 10 players are former MVP Scottie Thompson of Ginebra with 31 SPs, Chris Newsome of Meralco with 28.5 SPs, Jio Jalalon of Magnolia with 28.4 SPs, and Kings pair of Maverick Ahanmisi and Jamie Malonzo, who garnered 27.6 SPs and 27.58 SPs, respectively.
Meanwhile, Terrafirma rookie Stephen Holt leads the race for this season's Rookie of the Year award with 24 SPs after averaging 12.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the Commissioner's Cup.
NorthPort's Cade Flores is second with 22.4 SPs, Ken Tuffin of Phoenix's at third with 20.1 SPs, Kenmark Cariño of Terrafirma at fourth with 16.1 SPs and Fran Yu also of NorthPort at fifth with 15.8 SPs.
