By REYNALD MAGALLON
June Mar Fajardo has won a record-extending 10th Best Player of the Conference award but nothing has changed for the 6-foot-10 gentle giant since the first time he claimed the coveted award.
In the first nine BPC awards, Fajardo would always ask his entire team to join him at the center court as he raised the trophy which, through the years, has become the bone of contention why he was regarded as the best ever to play the sport in the PBA.
It was the same old story on Wednesday, June 12 when he bagged the NuStar BPC award that not only signified how dominant he has been in all-Filipino conference but also put him on pace for another record-extending eighth MVP award.
Like the previous nine BPC awards, Fajardo is crediting his teammates for the award.
“Masaya ako na nakuha ko yung BPC pero iki-credit ko iyon sa teammates ko kasi di ko makukuha iyon kung di dahil sa mga teammates ko,” said Fajardo who won the award in a runaway fashion – the largest winning margin in fact since 2019 when he won his eighth BPC award.
Fajardo accumulated a total of 1,100 points – a far cry to the 651 points of closest pursuer in Terrafirma rookie Stephen Holt.
As high as his career has been so far is as humble as Fajardo could get, even playing down his 10th BPC plum, saying that anyone from the Beermen can win it due to their depth.
“Kahit sino sa team namin pwede maging best player of the conference kasi sobrang lalim ng team namin,” he added.
SMB head coach Jorge Gallent said otherwise, noting how a 10th BPC award was a difficult feat to achieve.
“June Mar really worked hard for it. It doesn’t come easy so I’m happy that he got it,” said Gallent.
There were no BPC jinx whatsoever for Fajardo, proving that he’s head and shoulders above everyone with a monster effort of season-high 28 points on top of his 13 rebounds to power the Beermen to a series-equalizing 111-101 win in Game 4.
It came two days after he was limited to just five shots in the Game 3 loss.
Fajardo stressed that it was not the BPC award the fueled his Game 4 explosion but rather the need to step up and bounce back to prevent his team from falling into 1-3 series deficit.
“Motivated kasi down kami 3-1 sa series yung BPC bonus na lang iyon,” said Fajardo.
“Kailangan ko talaga iassert ‘yung sarili ko sa ilalim kasi pag natalo kami 3-1 na, mahihirapan na kami makabalik pa sa 3-1. So gusto namin manalo, gusto namin matie yung series,” he added.
