TRUE-BLUE cage fans took reigning eight-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo to task for an underwhelming stint with Gilas Pilipinas in the last FIBA Asia Cup.
Pro league great Ramon Fernandez can only look back and ponder what could have been if Fajardo, his former protégé, mastered a patented big man move he taught to the San Miguel Beer center—the skyhook.
“I taught June Mar in college to do the skyhook and he was able to do that, though he never really mastered it,” Fernandez said on the Power and Play program of former PBA Commissioner’ Noli Eala.
“I was telling him, ‘You’re gonna need that in international competitions when you go against bigger and heftier (players)’,” he added.
The 6-foot-10 Fajardo, 35, groped for form in the Philippine five’s seventh-place finish in the blue ribbon Asian meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, mainly due to the other teams’ faster bigs who also shot from the outside that drew the Pinamungahan, Cebu native out of the shaded lane.
Fernandez, 71, said while Fajardo practically is unmatched in Asia’s first play-for-pay league, the international game is a different animal—and the skyhook could have made a big difference.
“(It’s) because of the size of the players in international competitions, simple as that. “Like here (in the PBA), he can really dominate because there’s no one who’s as tall as him or as skilled as him here,” Fernandez said.
“If ever, there’s just probably one or two, unlike in the world stage where almost all teams have seven-footers, 6-10s or 6-11s abound in their teams, so that’s kind of hard for him.”
