JUNE Mar Fajardo proved the PBA Philippine Cup remains his domain.
The 6-foot-10 San Miguel star notched the Best Player of the Conference award on Sunday, taking back the coveted individual plum that has been his for six straight seasons until going down with a fractured tibia two years ago.
Fajardo has been the consistent leader of the BPC race from the eliminations onwards, that he ended up winning the title for the ninth time overall didn't come as a surprise.
The University of Cebu alumnus topped the statistical points (501) and both the media (537) and players votes (81) for a total tally of 1,119 points.
He won the award by runaway fashion as he beat San Miguel teammate CJ Perez by 342 points - curiously the second fewest winning margin out of his nine BPC title since beating Calvin Abueva of Alaska during the 2015 all-Filipino edition.
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Perez accumulated 776 total points after placing second in statistics (474) and media votes (257), while finishing third in players' votes with 45.
Mikey Williams of TNT, who didn't begin to strongly contend for the plum until the semifinals, came in third with 610 points despite having the same number of players' votes as Fajardo with 81.
The prolific Fil-Am guard however, finished only third in statistics (419) and media votes (110), respectively.
The Barangay Ginebra pair of Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar rounded up the Top five in the BPC race.
Thompson, the reigning league MVP, followed Williams at no. 4 with 468 points, while Aguilar was a notch below with 415 points.
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Fajardo, the only six-time winner of the MVP title, won the PH Cup BPC award for six consecutive years from 2014-2019 before suffering an injury early in 2020 and kept him out for the Philippine Cup bubble in Clark,
Pampanga, where Barangay Ginebra guard Stanley Pringle run away with the plum to break Fajardo's record.
The 32-year-old Fajardo received his BPC plaque at center court of the Smart Araneta Coliseum, accompanied by his entire San Miguel Beer family just before Game 4 of the Philippine Cup finals against TNT.
Commissioner Willie Marcial handed out the award to Fajardo together with SMC sports director Alfrancis Chua, Magnolia governor Rene Pardo, Board vice chairman Bobby Rosales of Terrafirma, Converge governor Chito Salud.(RG)
