JUNE Mar Fajardo is one of the most liked players in Philippine basketball. Not only because he's good, but more because he's kind and humble.
He wasn't as popular among fans on Wednesday morning.
Gilas Pilipinas fans who were left disappointed after an opening 95-87 loss to Chinese-Taipei in the Fiba Asia Cup where as disappointed with the performance of the Phlippines' premier big man at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.
READ Kevin Quiambao a silver lining in Gilas loss to Chinese Taipei
The 6-10 gentle giant finished with two points on 1-of-3 shooting from the field to go with two rebounds and three turnovers in 19:29 minutes of play - numbers they obviously didn't expect from the PBA's eight-time [going nine-time] MVP and 12-time Best Player of the Conference awardee.
Disappointed fans turned to Twitter and Facebook to call out Fajardo after the loss, which left Gilas in a veritable must-win game against top group favorite New Zealand to avoid falling into the losers' bracket.
"GOAT daw," said one post on Twitter, punctiating his line with a LOL emoji, "bine-baby kasi ng PBA. Di daw pwde yung mas malaki sa kanya kaya may height limit."
"June Mar a liability," said another post. "Big men of TPE are stretching out and June Mar had to track them, leaving the middle open for drivers to come in and Kraken does not have the speed to catch up to them."
Gilas' other big man, AJ Edu, had a better game, delivering eight points and 12 boarrds in 20:15 minutes while Kevin Quiambao came off the bench to score 17 points and grab four boards in 16:35 minutes of play.
The two helped Gilas take a huge 48-24 edge in rebounding including a 21-6 tally in offensive boards, which led to 22 second-chance points for the Filipinos.
Brandon Gilbeck was Chinese-Taipei's top big with 16 points and nine rebounds.
The good thing is that this is just one game and Fajardo has all the opportunities to atone for the rest of the campaign, beginning with the face-off against the new-look Tall Blacks on Thursday (starting 11 p.m., Manila time).
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