Calvin Abueva’s Alaska Aces Pummel Talk N’ Text; But Jayson Castro On His Way To Season MVP - Statistics vs. Attitude; Arwind Santos Sneaking In
PBA Governors Cup - Alaska Aces cruised to a 112-104 victory against Talk N Text, thanks largely to double-double production by import Wendell McKines and veteran banger Sonny Thoss. As for Rookie of the Year and MVP frontrunner Calvin Abueva, the Beast just logged 15 minutes in the game but still produced 11 rebounds with three points and three assists.
Abueva is primed to become the first MVP and Rookie of the Year winner since a player named Benjie Paras accomplished such feat in 1989 with Shell. However, Abueva's quest of repeating such incredible accomplishment may need him to reform his attitude on and off the basketball floor.
A great number of PBA players and mediamen are not fond of Abueva, that's for sure. In a story posted by Rey Joble of InterAKTV, Alaska coach Luigi Trillo is aware of Abueva's attitude and believed his ward need to be nicer to other players and media.
"He has to do a better job with the media. He has to be a better person with that. I think, maybe he's ashamed (whenever he talks to the press)," Trillo said in the interview.
"He has to do also a better job dealing with other players. He's molded like an enforcer, tough guy. We're working on that. Honestly, I've been doing that and we have to work on him on other things as well."
Jayson Castro (15 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds against Alaska), the other frontrunner for the most prestigious individual award in the first pay-for-play league, has already developed a good rapport with his fellow players since joining the PBA in 2008. His stint with the Smart Gilas Pilipinas and his crowning as Asia's best point guard further padded his credibility as the one deserving for the MVP plum.
Abueva (21.4 statistical points) leads the statistical race ahead of Arwind Santos (21 SPs) and Castro (20 SPs). Keep in mind that Santos can also win it all with Petron doing a fine job so far in the conference. But Sometimes, stats alone can't win a player MVP. For someone to be valuable, he has also to develop a great level of respect towards and from his fellow competitors. And that's the huge disparity between the volatile Abueva and icy calm Castro.