MANILA, Philippines - By putting up the most dominant numbers by any PBA player in a tournament in years, San Miguel Beer prized center June Mar Fajardo emerged the hands-down winner of the Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup Nice Day Coffee Best Player of the Conference.
So overpowering was his performance that he clinched the coveted honors despite missing the championship series.
Fajardo was the unanimous choice over Greg Slaughter, Sean Anthony, Asi Taulava and Willy Wilson, thus becoming the first player in league history to win the coveted all-Filipino individual award for three consecutive years.
Counting his Governors Cup BPC plum last season, Fajardo has won four, only one short of the all-time best record of five by former SMB star Danny Ildefonso.
During his prime, Ildefonso strung up five straight BPC awards from the 2000 Commissioner’s Cup on his way to a sweep of all three BPCs in the succeeding season. He won the Most Valuable Player diadems in both seasons.
But stats-wise, Fajardo proved to be a lot more dominant.
The 6-foot-10 Cebuano led the tourney in scoring (26.0 ppg), rebounding (14.82 rpg) and blocks (2.12).
Those whopping numbers are the largest churned out by any player since Asi Taulava logged 25.7 points and 14.4 rebounds a game on the way to winning the Philippine Cup BPC in 2003.
Taulava also had a huge Philippine Cup in 1999 when he averaged 22.2 markers and 13.9 boards.
Eric Menk had his most dominant tourney in the 2000 all-Filipino where he piled up 26.2 points and 13.2 rebounds a game.
A downside for Fajardo was missing the finals due to a knee injury suffered in Game Six of their best-of-seven semifinal showdown with the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.