With another MVP added to his trophy collection, The Kraken is now passing through uncharted waters in PBA history.

Another PBA Leo Awards – for the uninitiated, that’s the name of the awards the PBA gives to its top individual performers, named after the league’s first commissioner Leo Prieto – has come and gone, and for the eighth time in the last ten PBA seasons, June Mar Fajardo has been named Most Valuable Player.

Fajardo’s dominance of the league at this point has become so ridiculous and inevitable that his winning an MVP is now as sure as one of his one-handed turnaround jumpers in the paint.

Only twice in the last ten seasons has he not brought home the most coveted individual award in local professional basketball: in 2020, when the pandemic limited the regular season to a single bubble conference that he sat out due to injury, and the next season, when he was still working his way back to top form and Scottie Thompson took advantage.

Simply put, when June Mar is at the top of his game, the other players stand no chance of winning MVP. The past season initially offered some hope for CJ Perez and Christian Standhardinger after Fajardo missed a stretch of the Commissioner’s Cup due to an injury. In fact, Perez would go on to win Best Player of the Conference.

But The Kraken put together a strong performance in the Philippine Cup and eventually erased whatever statistical lead the two had built up. Again, he was inevitable.

In the end, it wasn’t even close: Fajardo won every category – stats, media votes and player votes – to collect a total of 2,799 points for a comfortable 848-point margin of victory over teammate Perez.

Fajardo says he never thought he would win this many MVPs (nobody did), but he does feel he deserved each of those trophies (hard to argue against any of them).

“Sa totoo lang di ko nga ma-imagine na makakuha ako ng ganito karaming MVP,” he told the media on Sunday at the opening ceremonies of the PBA’s 49^th season. “Ano lang ba naman ako dati? Sa totoo lang talaga di naman talaga ako naglalaro ng basketball.

“Kung ano naman meron ako ngayon siguro deserve ko naman yun. Di naman handover lang sa akin yun. Pinaghirapan ko naman yun.”

Historical dominance

Of course, this latest piece addition to June Mar’s trophy case (he remarked, in his own self-deprecating way, that he might need to build an extra room in his home), will spark another round of debates centering on whether he has now done enough to be the clear pick for the PBA’s Greatest of All Time.

I won’t devote this piece to such a discussion; that deserves a separate analysis, although if you’d ask me for my knee-jerk reaction, I’d still lean towards Mon Fernandez simply because his total body of work at this point is still the best ever.

Fajardo, though, is without a doubt in the discussion, and it’s not difficult to make a compelling argument for him. He was recently named by ESPN to its list of the top 25 Asian athletes in the 21^st century, joining Manny Pacquiao and Hidilyn Diaz as the only Filipinos to make it (Fajardo considered the honor so improbable that initially he thought it was fake news.)

He also now has as many MVPs as Fernandez and Alvin Patrimonio combined, even as he downplays this achievement.

“Masaya ako sa na-achieve ko nga,” he admits. “Pero sila Papa Mon at si Sir Alvin, iba naman sila, eh. Sila talaga yung barometer sa MVP. Tapos siyempre, respect sa kanila. Sila yung nag-set ng standards sa PBA. Kami, nakasunod lang kami sa yapak nila.”

For June Mar, Fernandez is still at the top of the totem pole, simply because of one statistic: those 19 championships.

“Siyempre, masaya ako na mapabilang doon (GOAT conversation). Pero sa tingin ko, malayo pa ako doon. Sobrang daming deserving na tawaging goat ng PBA.

“Si Papa Mon lang. Dami niyang championships, 19 championships ata. So, ako nakailan pa lang. Ten pa lang ata. Sobrang layo ko pa sa kanya.”

Check back later, greatness ongoing

With Fajardo himself laying down the standards by which players should be measured, perhaps it’s best to set aside the PBA GOAT conversation until after June Mar retires and his complete body of work can be held up more accurately against that of Fernandez.

For now, we should recognize that we are witnessing a stretch in PBA history that will very likely never be equaled, let alone surpassed. Never has one player put together a string of seasons like Fajardo has.

What’s more, conditions are ripe for him to extend his dominance for the foreseeable future.

Although he’s turning 35 and has been beset by injuries here and there, his closest pursuers have either peaked already or are still a few years away from their peak.

Thompson, the last player not named Fajardo to be named MVP, has been plagued of late by a balky back and now has to share the ball with the ascendant Stephen Holt.

Standhardinger has hinted at retirement, and because he is now playing for the Terrafirma Dyip in all likelihood may not see another finals anytime soon.

Perez looms are perhaps the largest threat: since they’re teammates, they move together lock and step in terms of games played and the corresponding statistical points that go with them. But until Jorge Gallent decides to move his offense away from his big fella and into the hands of Perez, Fajardo will still have the edge.

Holt could be another wild card. He’s shown he has the skills and talent to be a topnotch player, and he’s now on a team that goes deep into the playoffs each conference. But until he gets super comfortable in Tim Cone’s scheme of things, he might initially struggle to consistently produce MVP-type numbers.

If there’s a worthy challenger out there, please raise your hand. Literally and figuratively, June Mar Fajardo still looms large in the horizon. A ninth MVP is certainly possible in Season 49 since the Beermen, even with an aging core, are still intact and have vast experience. A tenth, which could come fortuitously in the league’s 50^th season, might be more challenging but certainly still doable.

And bad news for the rest of the league: Fajardo seems to be up to the challenge.

“Sa totoo lang, di naman yun yung goal pero why not?” he reasons out. “Kasi ayaw ko rin maging stagnant. Siyempre gusto kong mag-improve. Every year gusto kong mag-improve.”

Imagine winning eight MVPs and still wanting to improve.

The truth is, we should all be observing and keeping track of this journey towards basketball immortality. Even if you don’t root for June Mar and the Beermen, at least root for history. You might never get another chance.

Banner Image from Sid Ventura.