Fajardo nears 10th BPC plum

A 10th Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Best Player of the Conference (BPC) looms for San Miguel Beer center June Mar Fajardo.

The Beermen behemoth has lorded it over on the statics race after the semifinals of the Philippine Cup.

But NLEX guard Robert Bolick and Terrafirma rookie Stephen Holt can also pull off a surprise to spoil Fajardo from expanding his already league-leading BPC collection in the simple awarding rites set today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The BPC winner will be announced before the Philippine Cup Game 4 tipoff between San Miguel and Meralco.

Fajardo, a seven-time Most Valuable Player, has accumulated 43.12 statistical points (SPs) after 17 games including a sweep of Rain or Shine in the best-of-seven semifinals that propelled San Miguel to a 15th all-Filipino Conference finals appearance.

The 6-foot-10 Cebuano averaged 17.3 points, 14.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.2 blocks per game.

But Fajardo winning the top individual honor of the tournament does not just lie on stats alone as PBA players and media votes can also sway the decision.

BPC criteria are 45 percent average SPs, 30 percent media votes, and 25 percent players’ votes.

This could give Bolick and Holt a chance to shock the favorite.

Bolick is running second with 43.08 SPs after a consistent showing for the Road Warriors albeit coming up short of advancing his team past the quarterfinals.

He leads the tournament in scoring with 28.3 points per game. He also averaged 5.2 rebounds and 6.5 assists.

Holt, the top pick in the last Rookie Draft, has 40.8 SPs in third place.

He had an impressive all-around average of 21.08 points, 8.1 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 2.4 steals in helping the Dyip return to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

San Miguel Beer guard CJ Perez and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel big man Christian Standhardinger round up the five BPC candidates.

Perez, winner of the BPC award in the last Commissioner’s Cup, is at no. 4 with 39.18 SPs while Standhardinger is fifth with 39.16 SPs.