San Miguel Beer behemoth June Mar Fajardo, already the record holder as the player with the most Best Player of the Conference trophies won, is in the running for the coveted individual award yet again.
Fajardo has a crack at a sixth straight BPC award in the PBA Philippine Cup as he leads the current BPC race, comfortably ahead of everybody with an average of 42.2 statistical points per game.
But at least three players in Calvin Abueva, RR Pogoy and Matthew Wright are major threats, especially the two Phoenix Pulse players since their team has safely made it to the semifinals.
Fajardo may be leading the stats race, but the Beermen are still to fight the TNT KaTropa in a knockout setto in their quarterfinal matchup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Wednesday.
The Cebuano gentle giant is in pole position in the stats race on the strength of his league-leading norms of 22.1 points and 12.5 rebounds per outing.
NorthPort teammates Sean Anthony (37.1) and Stanley Pringle (36.0) are Fajardo’s closest pursuers, followed by Abueva (34.9), Pogoy (34.7) and Wright (34.3).
Moala Tautuaa (33.3), Ian Sangalang (33.0), Japeth Aguilar (31.9) and Jayson Castro (31.0) round out the Magic 10.
But only the top five in the stats race after the semifinals will be declared the official candidates for the award.
Columbian Dyip’s Jaymar Perez, NorthPort’s Robert Bolick and Rain or Shine’s Javee Mocon are in an interesting race for the Rookie of the Year award to be given away at season’s end.
Perez leads the stats’ derby with 28.7, but Bolick and Mocon are close behind with identical SP averages of 23.6 through the all-Filipino elims.
Blackwater’s Abu Tratter (20.5) is at fourth, followed by Columbian’s JP Calvo (16.6) and Jeepy Faundo (14.2).