San Miguel’s Fajardo in familiar spot anew as PBA MVP race leader

MANILA, Philippines — Will we see June Mar Fajardo hoist up the PBA Most Valuable Player award for a record-extending 10th time?

Fajardo is the frontrunner for the MVP race after two conferences in PBA Season 50.

The 6-foot-10 San Miguel star is averaging 17.0 points, a league-leading 16.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 0.8 steal and 0.9 block a contest through 37 games played.

He amassed 29.8 statistical points (SPs) thus far combined for the Philippine Cup (40%) and the Commissioner’s Cup (30%).

Coming in second in the race is NLEX Road Warriors guard Robert Bolick, who is averaging 19.2 points, a league-leading 8.2 assists, 5.2 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 0.2 block per game for 26.7 SPs.

Coming in third is Converge FiberXers rookie Juan Gomez-de Liano, who is averaging 17.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.0 steal and 0.1 block a game through 22 contests, good for 23.6 SPs.

Magnolia’s Zav Lucero, who has 15.7 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists, a league-leading 2.0 blocks and 1.1 steals per game for 23.3 SPs, and Converge’s Justine Baltazar, with 13.5 points, 11.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.09 steal and 0.5 block per game for 23.2 SPs complete the top five of the MVP race thus far.

Ginebra’s RJ Abarrientos (22.8 SPs) and Scottie Thompson (22.6 SPs), San Miguel’s CJ Perez (22.6 SPs), Titan Ultra’s Joshua Munzon (22.3 SPs) and Converge’s Justin Arana (21.2 SPs) round up the top 10.