LA Tenorio was just 22 points away from winning his first ever PBA Most Valuable Player trophy which would have highlighted what had been an outstanding first season for him playing for Barangay Ginebra.
But the cerebral point guard doesn’t mind it losing the plum to good friend Arwind Santos of Petron.
Besides, he’d rather help the Kings win a championship before he starts thinking of winning individual honors.
“Mahirap kasing mag-set lang ng individual goals ko, gusto ko muna unahin yung team, yung mag-champion kami,” he shared to Spin.ph.
“Susunud na naman yang mga individual awards kung mag-champion na kami,” he added.
Tenorio finished second behind Santos in the MVP race, amassing 2819 points to the 2840 of Santos.
The mere thought of giving `Spiderman’ a run for his money in the chase for the league’s highest individual award is more than enough to satisfy the playmaker out of Ateneo.
“Ito na daw `yung closest fight para sa MVP. And looking back sa naging performance ko this season, nakita ko na may chance ako,” said the Gilas Pilipinas mainstay.
“Pero okay lang naman, may mga susunud pa iyan.”
Tenorio was traded by Alaska to Barangay Ginebra before the start of the season and made a late-surge for the MVP race during the Governors Cup that saw him average 15.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, a
career-best 9.1 assists, and 1.3 steals in 36.3 minutes of play.
And if not for the injury suffered the high-leaping Japeth Aguilar early in the conference and the freak accident of star guard Mark Caguioa during Ginebra’s quarterfinal tussle with sister-team Petron, the Kings could have stayed in the title hunt.
“Masaya naman ako dahil naging contender. Imagine mo, ang nakalaban ko eh si Arwind na taon-taon contender na sa MVP,” he said.
“Siyempre, si Arwind statistically kaya niyang mag-double-double dahil malaki siya at malakas sa rebounds.”
Tenorio played a key role in the Kings’ runner-up finish to Alaska during the Commissioner’s Cup Finals where he was named Best Player of the Conference.
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