Fajardo nears milestone after SMB victory
June Mar Fajardo doesn’t mind waiting another game for a chance to reach another PBA milestone.
San Miguel Beer’s 135-105 win served not just as another step towards gearing up for the quarterfinals of the PBA Governors’ Cup, but also put Fajardo on the cusp of joining the exclusive 10,000-point club.
His 25 points put him five shy of becoming the 19th player to join the elite list that includes Ramon Fernandez, Alvin Patrimonio, Robert Jaworski and Norman Black—the only import on the list.
“I wasn’t chasing it,” Fajardo said of the milestone.
San Miguel Beer coach Leo Austria, however, made Fajardo aware of how close he was to the feat just in case the nine-time Most Valuable Player wanted to get the chase over and done with.
But Fajardo elected to let some of his seldom-used teammates take advantage of the playing time.
He has a chance to get it on Wednesday when the Beermen face the NLEX Road Warriors at Ynares Center in Antipolo, in a game that will have seeding implications before the playoffs.
If Fajardo gets the job done, he will be the second player this season to achieve the feat after TNT’s Jayson Castro did it in May.
Four players previously reached the plateau in a San Miguel uniform—Abet Guidaben, Black and Allan Caidic.
“It would be an honor to get 10,000 points in my career, but that was not my focus [in this game]. If it comes, it comes,” he said.
Even if he didn’t quite make the elite club yet, Fajardo produced his best game of the conference after playing below par for most of the campaign.
And his performance, plus a 44-point showing from import George King, should put San Miguel into another gear with playoff time approaching.
The NLEX game will determine whether San Miguel can snatch the top seed in Group A, stay at No. 2 or fall to No. 3, and Fajardo believes it will mean a lot if the Beermen can at least get a win, regardless of their fate in the quarters.
“A win would give us a boost for the playoffs. And sure, that would be the mindset of NLEX,” Fajardo said.
Atoy Co, who celebrates his 75th birthday on Thursday, was the first PBA player to score 10,000 points back in 1984 for Crispa, and is currently fourth on the all-time scoring list with 12,994.
Fernandez became the second to reach the milestone, and later became the league’s all-time career scorer at 18,996.
