Fajardo smells ‘sweet sixth’

San Miguel giant paces MVP race

DUBAI – In terms of individual greatness, June Mar Fajardo could well be raising the bar higher as the Cebuano behemoth is a strong bet for a sixth straight PBA MVP award.

The San Miguel Beer ace has a strong case for a possible “sweet sixth” with his Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference (BPC) award, two championships won in the season and being the season stats race winner.

The MVP race is down to a four-cornered fight among Fajardo, Commissioner’s Cup BPC Jayson Castro of TNT KaTropa, Governors’ Cup BPC Christian Standhardinger of NorthPort and Columbian Dyip super rookie CJ Perez.

The Commissioner’s Office released the official list of candidates during the Dubai layover of the PBA delegation on way to Milan, Italy for their annual planning session.

 The season’s top performers will be feted during the Leo Awards that will usher in PBA Season 45 inaugurals on March 1.

Last year, Fajardo surpassed the long-standing record of Mon Fernandez and Alvin Patrimonio as four-time MVP winners.

As MVP candidate, Perez – twice BPC contender in the season – is cinch for the Rookie of the Year award and possibly a spot in the Mythical First Five.

If ever, Perez would be the first rookie to land a spot in the Mythical First Five after Calvin Abueva in 2012.

Others to be feted in the annual season-end awards are the winners of the Most Improved Player, the Sportsmanship Award, and members of the Mythical Second Team and the All Defensive Team.  

Stats-wise, Fajardo and Perez led the pack, with the SMB star piling up a whopping statistical points average of 39.6 and the Columbian Dyip super rookie coming through with 33.47 SPs per game.

Perez even led all comers in scoring, emerging as the league’s new scoring champ with 20.8 ppg. Matthew Wright was a close second with 18.89, followed by Fajardo (18.87).

Castro barely missed the Top Five with 31.5 per outing while Standhardinger came in 16th with 26.7.

 NorthPort’s Sean Anthony (33.46), Ginebra’s Stanley Pringle (31.8) and TNT’s RR Pogoy (31.7) finished third, fourth and fifth in the stats race, thus, putting themselves in good positions to make the Mythical Selections.

Ginebra’s Japeth Aguilar (29.9) came at seventh, followed by Wright (29.0), Magnolia’s Ian Sangalang (28.7) and SMB’s Moala Tautuaa (27.5) to round out the Magic 10.

In the race for the Mythical First Team and Second Team are players in the Top 25.

Others making the list are Troy Rosario (TNT), Scottie Thompson (Ginebra), Alex Cabagnot (SMB), Robert Bolick (NorthPort), Rashawn McCarthy (Columbian), Jeron Teng (Alaska), Chris Ross (SMB), Paul Lee (Magnolia), LA Tenorio (Ginebra), Poy Erram (NLEX), Chris Banchero (Magnolia), Arwind Santos (SMB) and Greg Slaughter (Ginebra).