AS June Mar Fajardo claimed a record-setting seventh Best Player of the Conference honor on Friday, not a few fans wondered if it's a good idea for the league to name the award in honor of the Cebuano big man.
Already a four-time league MVP, Fajardo added his first Commissioner’s Cup Best Player award to a growing collection that also includes the last five BPCs in the Philippine Cup as well as another in the 2015 Governors’ Cup.
Add to that a pair of Finals MVP awards, a Defensive Player of the Year title in 2015, the Most Improved Player plum in 2014, and another pair of Sportsmanship Awards, and he certainly has built a case to being one of the greatest PBA players of all time.
Currently, the PBA only has six of its awards named after a great.
The Best Import Award was named in honor of seven-time awardee Bobby Parks back in 2013, while the Jun Bernardino Trophy, named after the former league commissioner, was handed out in the all-Filipino conferences since 2006.
The PBA Press Corps has also done its part in honoring league greats.
The Coach of the Year award was named after former Crispa coach Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan, the Executive of the Year award was a nod to Crispa owner Danny Floro, the Sportsmanship Award after its first recepient Samboy Lim, and the Comeback Player of the Year in honor of William "Bogs" Adornado, who won the 1981 PBA MVP after returning from a career-threatening knee injury in the late 1970s.
So, might as well name the BPC award after Fajardo, right?
Nope, said the gentle giant from Cebu.
“Wag naman sa akin,” he said when asked about the idea. “Nakaka-proud lang kasi tuloy-tuloy yung blessings. Di naman natin magagawa 'yun kung hindi rin dahil sa teammates at coaches ko. Pero parang mas okay kung sa mga mas nauna sa atin ipangalan yung trophy.”
Fajardo would rather give the honor to those who paved the way for him, legends whom he thinks deserve the distinction more.
“Pwede naman si Sir Mon (Fernandez), o si Cap Alvin (Patrimonio), o si Lakay (Danny Ildefonso). Mas karapat-dapat na sa kanila natin ibigay yung ganoong karangalan,” he said.
The PBA started to hand out the BPC award in 1994, the same season the four-year PBA MVP Fernandez announced his retirement.
Patrimonio, meanwhile, was on his sixth season when the plum was handed out, becoming only the second player to receive it back in the 1994 Commissioner’s Cup and still managed to bag three before he called it a career in 2004.
Ildefonso previously held the record for most career BPC awards with five, winning the trophy in five straight conferences from 2000 Commissioner’s Cup to the 2001 Governors’ Cup. But another big contribution was mentoring Fajardo in his formative years in the pros.
So who deserves the honor?
You be the judge.
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