CHICAGO - When it comes to award results, I hate to attach the word "robbed" to the loser because it takes the shine off the winner.
But my heart aches for Sedrick Barefield on Sunday night. That PBA Season 49 Rookie of the Year honors, I felt, belonged to him.
Don't get me wrong, RJ Abarrientos deserved to win, but he simply wasn't better than the Fil-Am throughout the time frame where the award was judged on.
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In the three conferences that comprised Season 49, Barefield averaged 18.4 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game. compared to RJ's 12.1 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists per.
Barefield topped the statistical points category with 1,072 points against Abarrientos' 1,017. The Blackwater guard also garnered the most votes from players and ended up with 352 points.
SO HOW DID HE LOSE THE ROY?
Unfortunately, Barefield had zero media votes while Abarrientos had 855 followed by 428 from Calean Tiongson of Rain or Shine.
Just to be clear, there was no hanky panky that went on with the media voting where the deliberations among the voting mediamen oftentimes got "heated," I was told.
But that's little consolation for Barefield, whose camp called the result "extremely disappointing."
My beef isn't with the media voting. Their vote is important but I also think their say shouldn't carry more weight than the stats and the players votes categories.
Am I wrong to believe that the players should have at least an equal say on who wins the ROY? They are, after all, the ones actually playing with the candidates and are likely the better arbiters than the spectating, analyzing media.
FLAWED PROCESS.
Should the league insist otherwise, then why not make the media the sole decision-maker, just like what's done in the NBA?
But here's why this latest result is a bad look.
In the NBA, the last five Rookie of the Year winners played for awful teams because the goal of giving the top pick to a lottery team is to encourage parity.
In the PBA, the last two Rookie of the Year winners come from Ginebra, a perennial title contender and the top box office draw.
Meanwhile, Barefield didn't just lose bragging rights. He also missed out on decent bonus money. More importantly, he lost a hardware that would have helped burnish his value in the PBA or elsewhere.
Unlike the other individual awards, Barefield only had one shot at winning Rookie of the Year.
And that is the worst part because he doesn't even get a chance at redemption.
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