SANTOS WINS 2ND GOVERNORS CUP BPC IN 3 YEARS; BLAKELY NAMED BEST IMPORT
In what could be a prelude to a bigger toast, Arwind Santos Sunday night was crowned the PBA Governors Cup Best Player of the Conference.
Santos collected the top individual award in the season-ending conference and thus enhanced his chances for the most coveted ware – the Most Valuable Player trophy – in the year-end Leo Awards.
The 6-foot-4 forward from Far Eastern U beat Petron teammates Junmar Fajardo and Alex Cabagnot, Barangay Ginebra’s LA Tenorio and Globalport’s Jay Washington for the BPC plum – his second after bagging the same award in their title run in the same conference in 2011.
PBA commissioner Chito Salud and PBA Board Chairman Robert Non handed Santos the award before Game Two of the best-of-seven finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Santos shared the spotlight with San Mig dynamo Marqus Blakely who was named the Best Import.
Blakely, runner-up to Jamelle Cornley in the Best Import race in this tourney last year, landed to the top in his PBA return, amassing 1,322 points to beat with relative ease Petron’s Elijah Millsap (937), Rain or Shine’s Arizona Reid (673) and Meralco’s Mario West (450).
Santos also won the BPC award in runaway fashion as he placed second to Tenorio in the stats race and emerged the top choice by those (media, players and the Commissioner’s Office) involved in the balloting.
The 32-year-old Angeles, Pampanga native garnered a total of 1,202 points as against Fajardo’s 777, Cabagnot’s 558, Tenorio’s 457 and Washington’s 388.
It was a significant accolade for Santos, making him a strong contender for the season’s MVP award against all-Filipino BPC Jayson Castro and Commissioner’s Cup BPC Tenorio.
He’s a perennial MVP contender settling for a place in the Mythical First Team in each of the last five seasons.
In his freshman year in the league in 2006, Santos finished runner-up to Kelly Williams for the Rookie of the Year award. He also gained membership in the Mythical Second Team.
D-Day for all the awards candidates is Friday over at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City prior to the start of Game 4 of the ongoing best-of-seven Last Dance between the Boosters and Mixers. (SB)
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
