THE big wheels keep on turning, proud Cebu keeps on burning and rolling.
Hoop fans from the Sugbu Nation are rejoicing after two of their favorite sons romped away with the top individual honors for the 2013-14 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) campaign.
Tree-like Junmar (June Mar) Fajardo, the second-year pro from San Miguel Beer, was a major winner during the Leo Awards ceremony held last Saturday (July 5), capturing the Most Valuable Player and the Most Improved Player awards and being named to the PBA Mythical First Team and PBA All-Defensive Team.
Fajardo’s collegiate nemesis from their Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (CESAFI) years, man mountain Gregory William (Greg) Slaughter of Barangay Ginebra, secured the Rookie of the Year trophy.
In 37 games this season, the 6-foot-10 Fajardo posted double-double averages of 16.8 points (on .549 field goal shooting) and a league-leading 14.2 rebounds along with 1.4 assists and 2.1 blocks in 35.5 minutes of action with the Beermen.
The league’s No. 1 overall draft selection in 2012 by the Petron Blaze Boosters (later to become the San Miguel Beer), the Compostela, Cebu native normed 12.1 ppg (on a .564 floor clip), 9.3 rpg, 0.6 apg and 1.2 bpg in 45 games and 26.9 minutes per tilt in 2012-13 but lost to Alaska’s Calvin Abueva in the PBA Rookie of the Year race. Fajardo nonetheless was voted to the league’s Mythical Second Team last year.
Fajardo’s much-improved performance this campaign came after his stint with the lion-hearted Gilas Pilipinas team that placed second to the Islamic Republic of Iran in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship held in Manila.
Then again, Fajardo’s Beermen failed to reach the PBA finals in all three conferences this season and has yet to snare a ring in two pro seasons.
The 24-year-old Fajardo is so proud of his Sugbu roots, boldly declaring after receiving the MVP hardware that if drugs have a “Tatak” BFAD, his own “Tatak” was UC, referring to his alma mater, the University of Cebu.
Not since Donaldo (Dondon) Hontiveros (whose old No. 7 UC jersey remains on display in the Webmasters’ Cebu Coliseum showroom) joined the professional ranks in the early 2000s has there been another UC product who has hogged the headlines in the PBA like Fajardo.
Slaughter, on the other hand, grabbed PBA Rookie of the Year honors this season after compiling averages of 14.9 points (on .521 field shooting), 9.9 boards, 1.4 assists and 1.50 swats in 26 games and 34.2 minutes with Barangay Ginebra, which selected him with the first pick in the entire 2013 draft. The Gin Kings’ first ROY awardee since Mark Caguioa in 2001, the 6-foot-11, 25-year-old Slaughter also was named to the PBA Mythical Second Team.
The career paths of Fajardo and Slaughter have been intertwined since their collegiate days.
Slaughter powered the University of the Visayas Green Lancers to the CESAFI title in 2007, 2008 and 2009 before the Ohio, USA-born mastodon, whose maternal grandmother hails from Cebu, left for Manila in 2010 to take a one-year residency at the Ateneo de Manila University. With the Blue Eagles, he gained a pair of UAAP championships in 2011 and 2012.
Fajardo powered the UC Webmasters to a pair of CESAFI championships in 2010 and 2011 during the post-Slaughter era. He was the MVP in the premier Cebu collegiate circuit for three consecutive years – 2009 (despite Slaughter’s UV team beating UC in the finals), 2010 and 2011.
Internationally, Fajardo first wore the Philippine colors as part of the Rhoel Gomez-coached UC squad that competed in the prestigious Summer Universiade (or World University Games) in Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China in 2011. I covered the Universiade that year and once sat with Fajardo for dinner where he consumed six packs of yogurt before taking his meal.
Fajardo also suited up for San Miguel in the 2012 season of the Asean Basketball League (ABL) where the Beermen emerged victorious under coach Leo Austria.
Slaughter was a member of the Philippine national teams that both copped the gold medal in the 2011 Southeast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA) basketball tournament and the Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.