WHO else but San Miguel Beer star center June Mar Fajardo?

The reigning eight-time PBA MVP is poised to add another laurel to his vast collection of awards—the 49th season’s Governors Cup Best Player of the Conference plum.

The 6-foot-10 Fajardo showed the way in the race for the highest individual honor of the season-opening meet at the end of the single-round group phase.

Fajardo, coming off a similar award in the recent Philippine Cup, leads the statistical point standings going into the playoffs with a total of 43.9 SPs. He paces the league in rebounding with 15.0 boards while averaging 21.3 points and 2.8 assists.

Giving Fajardo a run for his money is Robert Bolick of NLEX, NorthPort’s Arvin Tolentino, fellow Beerman CJ Perez, and Japeth Aguilar of Ginebra.

Bolick is running second behind Fajardo with 38.7 SPs on the strength of being No. 1 in assists with 8.6 while averaging 20.4 points and 6.9 rebounds.

Tolentino banners the scoring department with 23.7 points for third spot with 37.5 SPs. He also has 8.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. The Batang Pier, however, failed to advance to the quarterfinals.

Perez, who bagged the BPC in last season’s Commissioner’s Cup, is at No. 4 with 37.0 SPs on averages of 20.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.2 steals, while Aguilar, playing with renewed zest for the Kings, amassed 33.4 SPs (19.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists) to round out the top five.

Former MVP Scottie Thompson of Ginebra is next with 30.3 SPs behind averages of 12.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.9 assists—barely ahead of Blackwater’s Sedrick Barefield, the only rookie to make it to the top 10 with 29.5 SPs (18.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, 4.9 assists).

Alec Stockton of Converge (29.1 SPs), Kings sophomore Stephen Holt (28.4 SPs), and Meralco’s Chris Newsome (28.1 SPs) complete the top 10.

Blackwater’s George King lords it over in the best import derby with 61.7 SPs after leading all reinforcements in scoring with 40.3 points and 13.1 rebounds.

But the Bossing failed to advance to the Last Eight.

Reigning best import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson of defending champion TNT is second with 57.6 SPs after emerging as the top assists man among imports with 6.2 dimes, 2.7 steals, and 2.1 block shots, followed by NLEX’s Dequan Jones (55.3 SPs), Jordan Adams of SMB (50.1 SPs), and Converge’s Jalen Jones (47.5sps).

The Kings’ Justine Brownlee, a three-time winner of the best import plum, is running sixth with 47.4 SPs followed by Aaron Fuller of Rain or Shine who leads the league in rebounding with an average of 17.0 with 46.8 SPs.

Another three-time best import in Allen Durham of Meralco came in at eighth with 46.8 SPs.

While Fajardo appears to have a big shot at the award, the rest can’t be said for the best import laurel—it’s a wide-open race.