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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider SMB's Perez wins elusive BPC plum; Phoenix's Williams hailed Arena Plus-Best Import

SMB's Perez wins elusive BPC plum; Phoenix's Williams hailed Arena Plus-Best Import

Published Feb 9, 2024 12:54 pm

At A Glance

  • After coming close to winning in the past few conferences, CJ Perez has finally claimed his first Best Player of the Conference award while Phoenix import Johnathan Williams was hailed as the Arena Plus-Best Import in the 2023-'24 PBA Commissioner's Cup on Friday, Feb. 9.

After coming close to winning in the past few conferences, CJ Perez has finally claimed his first Best Player of the Conference award while Phoenix import Johnathan Williams was hailed as the Arena Plus-Best Import in the 2023-’24 PBA Commissioner’s Cup on Friday, Feb. 9.

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San Miguel Beermen's CJ Perez (PBA Images)

Perez bested Barangay Ginebra’s Christian Standhardinger and Scottie Thompson, NorthPort’s Arvin Tolentino and TNT’s Calvin Oftana to finally nail the elusive individual award that has evaded him despite being a consistent candidate in all of the three conferences last season.

Perez came in closest to winning the award in the Philippine Cup of last season when he finished second behind teammate June Mar Fajardo. 

He remained in contention in the next two conferences, wounding up fourth in the Commissioner’s Cup behind Thompson, Jamie Malonzo and Robert Bolick and third behind Standhardinger and RR Pogoy in the Governors’ Cup.

The do-it-all SMB guard, though, made sure that he won’t be denied this time, garnering a total of 1055 points – combined from the statistics, and votes from PBA players and members of the press. It was a far cry from the second-running Standhardinger who had 777 points.

Tolentino came in third with 559 points while Oftana and Thompson completed the list with 472 and 446 points, respectively.

Meanwhile, largely due to his contributions to the sudden rise of the Fuel Masters in this conference, Williams managed to best San Miguel Beer’s Bennie Boatwright and Magnolia’s Tyler Bey – two imports that are currently seeing action in the Commissioner’s Cup finals.

The Fuel Masters import edged Bey after amassing 1017 total points against the Hotshots’ import 908 points. Boatwright wound up third with 878 points while Tony Bishop ended fourth with 506 points.

Williams was a vital cog to the solid run for Phoenix that saw it reach the semifinals for the first time since the 2020 Philippine Cup. The Fuel Masters reinforcement is also the first Best Import winner to not participate in the conference finals since 2016 or when Arinze Onuaku won it for the Meralco Bolts.

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San Miguel Beermen CJ Perez
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