{"id":214628,"date":"2019-05-16T21:57:52","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T01:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=214628"},"modified":"2019-05-16T21:57:52","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T01:57:52","slug":"june-mar-fajardo-clinches-onto-third-mvp-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/16\/june-mar-fajardo-clinches-onto-third-mvp-trophy\/","title":{"rendered":"June Mar Fajardo clinches onto third MVP trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Besides eight BPC awards, this third Finals MVP trophy adds onto Fajardo\u2019s record of five MVP trophies, five All-PBA Team selections, a Defensive Player of the Year award, and seven championships. (Photo<\/a>: PBA<\/a>\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>Besides being named Best Player of the Conference (BPC) for the sixth time in a row and eight times in total in the 2019 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup, big man Cebuano June Mar Fajardo is hailed Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the third time in his career after leading the San Miguel Beermen (SMB) to their fifth franchise championship in a row during his Game Seven performance at the best-of-three finals series that ended last Wednesday, May 15.<\/span><\/p>\n

The PBA Press Corporation chose Fajardo as their Honda PBA Finals MVP as he broke the record for most rebounds in a finals game at 31 during Game Seven, adding a total of a crucial 17 points to the 72-71 victory. This meant that he surpassed 7-Up Marcelo Simbulan\u2019s 29 rebounds set during the 1975 inaugural season. During the seven-game series as a whole, the gentle giant averaged 22.9 points, 19.1 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides eight BPC awards, this third Finals MVP trophy adds onto Fajardo\u2019s record of five MVP trophies, five All-PBA Team selections, a Defensive Player of the Year award, and seven championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

After being crowned 2019 PBA Philippine Cup champions and rising from a 17-point deficit in the first half, Fajardo considers the series against Magnolia \u201creally one of the hardest,\u201d telling the media, \u201cEveryone stepped up. We refused to give up. And we’re thankful to repeat as champions,\u201d adding, \u201cI always tell myself I have yet to win any award or championship, [because] that’s what keeps my desire burning. That’s what motivates me to improve my game.\u201d As for his record-breaking performance, he elaborates, \u201cI didn’t expect it. I was just focused on getting rebounds and helping the team seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win five straight championships. I thought we’re in a good position so we pushed ourselves and won it. Anyway, my main job is really to rebounding and I’m glad I was able to grab rebounds.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Fajardo concluded, “I honestly don’t think about [the awards]. I always tell myself to cherish my awards but just keep them in my heart and not let them get to my head. I approach it as if I’ve never been a champion, I’ve never won an MVP, I’ve never won a BPC so I’ll be motivated to do my best.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Besides being named Best Player of the Conference (BPC) for the sixth time in a row and eight times in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports","mauthors-gianna-llanes","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214628"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214637,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214628\/revisions\/214637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}