San Miguel Beer behemoth June Mar Fajardo looks well unstoppable now from claiming a record sixth Best Player of the Conference plum.
Just how can he be denied with the huge numbers he piled up in leading the Beermen to a fourth straight finals entry in the PBA Philippine Cup.
At the end of the stats race in the culmination of the Final Four, Fajardo was miles ahead of everybody with a whopping average of 44.2 an outing. That's built around his league-leading norms of 22.9 points and 1.8 blocks and league-second best 12.9 rebounds.
Japeth Aguilar, running fifth in the race through the elims, hit big strides in the playoffs but couldn't make a dent on Fajardo's huge lead especially as Barangay Ginebra failed to make it past the Final Four.
But Aguilar (36.7) jumped past Arwind Santos (36.4), Stanley Pringle (36.1) and JP Erram (35.3) to finish second behind Fajardo.
Sponsored content:
The five contenders now go through the voting process. The Best Player of the Conference will be announced before Game Four of the best-of-seven finale.
With his overwhelming lead in the stats race, Fajardo is expected to stretch his reign as PBA Philippine Cup best player to a fifth straight year. If ever, it would be his sixth BPC plum overall.
At the moment, Fajardo shares the record with Danny Ildefonso with their similar hauls of five, one ahead of Jayson Castro and two ahead Mark Caguioa, Vergel Meneses, Eric Menk and Alvin Patrimonio.
And his dominant Philippine Cup showing may well also lead to a season MVP award, barring major trouble in the last two conferences. The Philippine Cup makes up 40 percent of the stats criteria for the season MVP award.
At 28, Fajardo is in an elite group with Ramon Fernandez and Alvin Patrimonio as the league's only four-time MVP winners.
Sponsored content:
Both Fernandez and Patrimonio have said they won't be surprised if Fajardo would win more MVP plums in the coming years. (SB)
