Fajardo on track for 10th MVP plum

Two conferences into Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 and June Mar Fajardo is once again showing the way in the race for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) plum.

Buoyed by San Miguel Beer retaining the Philippine Cup championship, the 36-year-old center has jumped the gun on Robert Bolick of NLEX, rookie Juan Gomez de Liano of Converge, Zavier Lucero of Magnolia, and Justin Baltazar also of Converge in taking the top spot for the season’s highest individual award.

The 6-foot-10 Fajardo amassed 29.8 statistical points (SPs) combined for the All-Filipino conference (40 percent) and Commissioner’s Cup (30 percent) to be on track of winning a record 10 PBA MVP trophy.

He averaged 17.0 points, a league-best 16.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in 37 games played so far for the season that saw him emerged as the Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference after topping the statistical race with 45.5 SPs.

Bolick is again crowding out Fajardo in the race by placing second with an accumulated 26.7 SPs after leading the league in assists with 8.3 per outing, and an all-around game of 19.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.5 steals. He topped the statistical points in the mid-season Commissioner’s Cup at 38.9 SPs but didn’t win the BPC plum after top seed NLEX bombed out in the opening round of the playoffs.

Gomez de Liano is also making a strong case for the award in his rookie season year by running third behind Bolick with 23.6 SPs built behind numbers of 17.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 1.0 steals while leading the Rookie of the Year award.

Lucero comes next at 23.3 sps while submitting averages of 15.7 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and a season-best 2.0 block shots.

In only his sophomore season, Baltazar completes the Top 5 list with 23.2sps behind a double-double of 13.5 points and 11.9 rebounds along with 2.5 assists and 1.0 steals.

RJ Abarrientos, the Commissioner’s Cup Best Player of the Conference, landed at no. 6 with 22.8sps (18.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.4 steals) followed by Barangay Ginebra teammate Scottie Thompson with 22.61sps (13.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.4 steals).

Making it to the top 10 are CJ Perez of San Miguel at no. 8 with 22.57 sps, Joshua Munzon of Titan Ultra with 22.3 sps while emerging as the league’s top scorer at 20.6 points and no. 1 in steals with 2.4 per game, and Justin Arana of Converge with 21.2 SPs.