‘The Kraken’

CEBU, Philippines — This hardcourt giant from Pinamungajan town south of Cebu is without doubt a future Hall of Famer in Philippine cagedom.

Now the country’s most dominant basketball player, June Mar Fajardo first sharpened his hoop skills as the member of the University of Cebu Webmasters,  UC’s college varsity team in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI).

Armed with discipline, hard work and perseverance, it did not take long for the 6-foot-8 goliath to make a name for himself. It all started when he guided the UC Webmasters to back-to-back CESAFI championships in 2010 and 2011 seasons.

Fajardo’s first shot to fame came when he etched his name in stone as the first Cebuano cager to emerge as the No.1 overall pick in the 2012 PBA Draft. The Petron Blaze Boosters bestowed upon him that distinct honor.

In his rookie year, he was selected to the All-Rookie Team and the Second Mythical Team. He also earned a silver medal playing for the Philippine national team at the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship.

The 29-year-old Fajardo just kept on getting better and fiercer. In his only sophomore year when Petron reverted to San Miguel Beermen, he bagged his first Most Valuable Player award.

After tying the records of Ramon ‘El Presidente’ Fernandez and Alvin Patrimonio with four MVP trophies in 2016, Fajardo went on to collect two more MVP plums to make history as the only PBA player to win the covered award in six consecutive seasons in 2018.

Fajardo also donned Phl’s colors in various international competitions. He was part of Gilas Pilipinas that competed at the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Seville, Spain. Because of his strong showing, Fajardo was ranked second among all players in terms of Player Efficiency Rating (PER), behhind NBA star Pau Gasol of Spain.He also formed part of the Gilas squad that saw action in the 5th FIBA Asia Cup in Wuhan, China where they won bronze medal.

So far in his illustrious PBA career, Fajardo is a seven-time Best Player of the Conference, five-time Mythical First Team, two-time Finals MVP, seven-time All-Star and six-time champion. More importantly, Fajardo kept his feet firmly on the ground, winning the PBA Sportsmanship Award two times in 2015 and 2016.

Looking back from the very start of his professional career nearly a decade ago, local sports analysts were indeed right in extolling Fajardo as the “Future of Philippine basketball”. (FREEMAN)