CHICAGO -- They don't call the PBA Philippine Cup as the June Mar Fajardo conference just for giggles.
Fajardo is a generational outlier, a full-blooded Cebuano who somehow sprouted like Jack's beanstalk, six feet and 11 inches tall while packing 268 pounds in his muscular-bound frame.
READ: Jericho Cruz caps contentious series with PBA Finals MVP award
With seven won championships in the import-less conference, The Kraken is the gold standard with which rival teams are measured. That's why he has eight league MVP trophies and 12 Best Player of the Conference nods.
Disguised as the 2025 Philippine Cup finals, the recently-concluded seven-game series was actually a familiar platform for Fajardo to flex his dominance.
Despite hopping on one leg, June Mar had a workload of a single carabao in a five-acre farm, logging 36 minutes and 59 seconds. And like always, he delivered like UPS.
MVP NUMBERS.
Through six Finals games, JMF punished TNT with 21.3 points, 12 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.1 blocks per outing.
Finals MVP, easy as Sunday morning, right?
Unfortunately, that is not the case. The coveted plum went to Jericho Cruz, who himself was surprised.
"Di ko talaga ini-expect na ma MVP," the Fil-Guamanian told Sports On Air during San Miguel's victory party at a posh five-star hotel in EDSA last Friday.
Although his production --- 13.8 points, 3,5 rebounds and 3.3 assists -- paled in comparison to Fajardo's, Cruz deserved the finals MVP trophy.
And here's why.
FLAMETHROWER.
While Fajardo was steady, immovable as the rock of Gibraltar, Cruz was the emotional leader, the electric charge required in a championship series that bubbled with animosity on and off the court.
Slightly less flammable than gasoline, Cruz played with an intensity that bordered on anger. And that vibe was contagious, lifting San Miguel from the debris of a deflating Game 1 loss where a Mo Tautuaa dunk was nullified in the waning seconds, allowing TNT to escape, 99-96.
Cruz poured 23 points in Game 4 and added another 20 in Game 5. The Adamson alum made timely buckets against a gallant but wounded Tropang 5G.
And when the series closed in six games, the damage the former Soaring Falcon inflicted on TNT was fatal -- 11 made 3s in 27 attempts, a blistering 40.7 percent clip.
Multiple injuries and Fajardo's inside might deomed TNT's grand slam bid.
It didn't help that the walls of Jericho Cruz fell on top of the Tropang 5G in a heap of destruction.
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