There 179 active players in the PBA right now, and six of those have the distinction of being named the league’s Most Valuable Player.
And two of those MVP play in one team and it’s no surprise San Miguel has become the most dominant one for the past three years, having won three of the last all-Filipino titles and are close to adding another one.
Behind that beer run are MVP plum—2013 winner Arwind Santos and reigning four-time MVP June Mar Fajardo, who have shown they can do wonders for the Beermen even if they don’t dominate both at once.
“It won’t happen that it’s just two of them will dominate but they could play good music together,” said Austria in Filipino in a chat with Inquirer after their practice at Acropolis Clubhouse.
Their numbers, though, still immediately jump out of the page as Santos and Fajardo lead all players in scoring with an average of 21.5 points and their rebounding numbers are a combined 22.5 per game.
Even in the blocks department, the two average more denials than the whole Hotshots who have average 2.5 a game combined with Fajardo tallying three a game and Santos two per outing.
Despite this numbers that his stars put up, Austria is not relying too much on Santos and Fajardo in leading to break the 1-1 tie with the Hotshots in the series.
Austria still has three more stars who can help the team get an unprecedented fourth straight Philippine Cup with Alex Cabagnot, a one-time Finals MVP; Chris Ross, a two-time Finals MVP; and Marcio Lassiter, four-time All Star ready to take the cudgels.
“We have a team offense and team defense,” said Austria. “But if someone is getting hot we’ll support him, the whole team will support him because anyone can explode for us any time.”