Slaughter completes comeback with best conference player plum

FILE: Greg Slaughter (Photo: Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel/Facebook)

MANILA — In only his first conference back from an ACL injury, a better Greg Slaughter showed up.

The seven-foot Ginebra beanpole was named the Best Player of the Conference for the PBA Governors’ Cup as announced on Sunday night before Game 2 of the Finals against Meralco after a stellar showing in the season-ending tournament.

Third in the stats race through the semis, Slaughter gained enough votes from the media and the Commissioner’s office to edge fellow Ateneo alumnus Chris Newsome and fellow Cebuano native June Mar Fajardo for the conference’s top local plum.

Slaughter topped the media votes with 412 points on 31 first-place votes and a perfect 150 points from the Commissioner’s office while also getting 393 statistical points and 20 points from the player votes for a total of 975 points, beating Newsome, who came in second, by more than 200 points.

Newsome topped the player votes with 44 points while going second in the votes from the media with 216 points Commissioner’s office with 75 points even as he got 216 statistical points for a total of 707 points.

Despite finishing first in the stats with 463 points, Fajardo only finished second in the player votes in a tie with Jayson Castro while going third in the Commissioner’s office and the media votes and could only come up with 617 points.