AND the MVP count continues for June Mar Fajardo.
The 6-foot-10 San Miguel ace bagged the league's highest individual award a record eighth time during the Season 48 Leo Awards held Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
It was the second straight season Fajardo was hailed MVP and the eighth time in the last nine years he won the award in a dominant stretch unparalleled in the history of the league.
Only Barangay Ginebra's Scottie Thompson managed to break through the MVP streak of the Cebuano big man, bagging the honor in Season 46 when Fajardo was out for the entire year after undergoing surgery on his shin injury.
From the looks of it, Fajardo isn't through yet rewriting history.
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"Sana next year ulit," said Fajardo in jest as he received the MVP trophy on stage from the entire PBA Board of governors led by chairman Ricky Vargas and commissioner Willie Marcial during the 30-minute proceedings presented by Arena Plus.
"Kung may darating na award, tatanggapin ko. Kasi hindi naman tayo habang buhay maglalaro. Hanggang kaya nating maglaro, i-collect natin ito, para pag natapos na yung career ko, may babalikan ako, may titingnan ako," he added later.
Fajardo beat out Christian Standhardinger of Terrafirma and San Miguel teammate CJ Perez for the award by overwhelming numbers. He finished with a total of 2799 points by topping the statistics (1615) and both the players (329) and media votes (855).
Perez, who was the Best Player of the Conference during the Commissioner's Cup, came out second with 1951 and Standhardinger at third with 1731.
The three MVP candidates led members of the First Mythical Team, where they were joined by Chris Newsome of Meralco and Northport's Arvin Tolentino.
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Meanwhile, the Second Mythical Team was led by consensus Rookie of the Year winner Stephen Holt of Barangay Ginebra, along with Calvin Oftana of TNT, Jason Perkins of Phoenix, Meralco's Cliff Hodge, and Holt's former Terrafirma teammate Juami Tiongson.
Holt emerged the runaway winner of the ROY award since he's been named part of the Mythical Team selection.
The Meralco pair of Hodge and Newsome, who played pivotal roles in the team's breakthrough championship during the Philippine Cup, banner the All-Defensive Team together with Fajardo, Joshua Munzon of Northport, and Terrafirma rookie Kemark Carino.
Rain or Shine also had a major winner during the opening day proceedings as third year guard Jhonard Clarito was named the Most Improved Player, while Paul Zamar of Northport was the latest recipient of the Samboy Lim Sportsmanship award.(RG)
