By JONAS TERRADO
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Stanley Pringle claimed the biggest achievement of his PBA career Sunday after being named the Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference in Sunday’s Special Awards Night.
Pringle was hailed as the best player of Season 45’s lone conference by edging out TNT’s Ray Parks Jr. and RR Pogoy, Phoenix Super LPG’s Matthew Wright and Calvin Abueva and Terrafirma’s CJ Perez.
The 33-year-old compiled 1,640 points through stats (641) and votes from the media (632), players (67) and the PBA Commissioner’s Office (300) to bag the award known informally as the “Bubble MVP.”
Wright was a close second in the derby with 1,578 points, followed by Pogoy (958), Parks (876), Abueva (779) and Perez (668).
Pringle won despite placing sixth in the Statistical Points after the Philippine Cup with 34.8, trailing Parks (38.2), Abueva (37.1), Perez (35.7), Wright (35.65) and Pogoy (35.64).
But his consistent play since the start of the bubble where he picked up the slack in lieu of the early struggles of LA Tenorio and Japeth Aguilar coupled with Ginebra’s successful title run were enough to convince voters to pick Pringle as the worthy choice for the BPC plum.
Pringle was only second in media votes behind Wright but topped the player votes and the PBA Commissioner’s Office.
Wright led the media votes with 868 but placed second in the player votes with 53 while getting none from the PBA Commissioner’s Office. Pogoy was a distant third with 657 (stats), 141 (media), 10 (players) and 150 (PBA Commissioner’s Office).
Parks was fourth (704 stats, 118 media,
4 players, 50 PBA) while Abueva (684 stats, 59 media, 36 players) and Perez (658 stats, 10 players) completed the order.
The BPC capped off a haul of awards Ginebra got during the hour-long ceremony that aired on TV5 and its online platforms.
Pringle and Japeth Aguilar made it to the Elite Five, Prince Caperal was named Most Improved Player and Scottie Thompson bagged the Samboy Lim Sportsmanship Award.
