LETRAN big man Christian Fajarito will sit out the upcoming NCAA Season 95 and will hone his game in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) Lakan Cup with the Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines.
Sources closely monitoring the situation bared that the 6-foot-6 banger has recently rejoined the team after attending to personal problems during the offseason.
Fajarito has since reached out to new head coach Bonnie Tan to return to the Knights, but the roster was already set when he came back.
In a report by The Lance, the official publication of Colegio de San Juan de Letran, the 23-year-old Fajarito said that he understood where the decision came from and vowed to be better than ever next year.
"Ayoko naman maging unfair sa iba na nag-ensayo the whole year, tapos ako na walang ensayo maisasama sa line-up," he said.
He only played four games with Petron-Letran in the 2019 PBA D-League and has missed the entirety of the 2019 Filoil Flying V Preseason Cup, where the Knights reached the quarterfinals.
Fajarito's absence will be a huge loss for Letran's frontline as he averaged 8.8 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 1.4 assists last year.
That would leave the huge chunk of responsibility to last season's Rookie of the Year Larry Muyang, as well as Jeo Ambohot, Renato Ular, and Christian Balagasay.
Still, Fajarito is looking at this as a chance for him to improve his talents more heading into next year's NCAA wars, especially as he'll be closely working with Zamboanga coach and current Knights assistant Raymund Valenzona.
"Nag-MPBL ako at dito ako kukuha ng more experience para pagbalik ko, may maipapakita ako," he said.
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