PART of the best twice in his career, Jay Washington now has an award that makes him the best.
Among the imports, Gabe Freeman remains the best.
Washington, a two-time member of the Mythical Team and No. 1 pick in the 2005 Draft, was named Friday night Best Player of the PBA Fiesta Conference and Freeman as Best Import in simple ceremonies preceding Game One of the Finals between San Miguel Beer and Alaska at the Araneta Coliseum.
The 6-foot-7 forward now seeing action for his third team after Air21 and Talk ‘N Text was the runaway choice over Alaska’s LA Tenorio and four others that also included James Yap of Derby Ace, the Tropang Texters’ Ranidel de Ocampo and Jimmy Alapag and Gary David of Coca-Cola.
The 28-year-old Washington amassed 1,365 points after collecting the most number of votes from the media (507), players (150), Solar TV (300) and the PBA (150). He also held the slimmest of margins in the statistical points with 258, just one point ahead over De Ocampo and David, who both had 257.
Tenorio wound up with 676 points while Yap collected 648. De Ocampo, the top player after the elimination round, totaled 475 with David, the leading local scorer in the conference, having 334. Alapag gathered 309 points.
The battle for the Best Import, however, was a close battle.
Freeman won the honor for the second straight time, becoming only the second Beerman to win the award twice after Norman Black. The hard-working, energetic reinforcement beat Alaska’s Diamon Simpson, 1358-1272, winning by the slimmest of margins in one of the closest race for the award in recent memory.
Freeman topped the voting only among the players with 226, 104 more than Simpson. The Alaska import, on the other hand, won over Freeman in the voting from the media (583-372) and from the PBA (150-75), and also led Freeman in the statistics department, 417-385.
Freeman became only the second SMB import to win the award twice after Norman Black who it in the 1982 Reinforced and 1985 Open Conferences.
Shawn Daniels of Talk ‘N Text wound up a far third in the voting with 537 points while Tony Washam of Derby Ace had 440 points.
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