While COVID-19 was unrelenting and formidable in forcing routine mass-gathering events such as sports games and league season plays to shut down as 2020 rolled on, it was something of a testament to the human spirit and his love for sports that some leagues did manage to get games done right to the championships. The NBA became a sort of your-example with their bubble environment in which they completed the 2019-20 regular season and playoffs. Local basketball league the PBA followed likewise using bubble environments to host the 2020 Philippine Cup from November to December. With that done, awards for the best players in Conference were announced this past Sunday.
And as ESPN-5 would have it, there was no surprise that 2020 PBA Philippine
Cup champions the Barangay Ginebra would take the lion’s share of accolades in
the league’s Special Awards Night. The event was held virtually and aired in
the early evening of January 17. Leading the way for the Ginebra achievers was
point guard Stanley Pringle, winner for Best Player of the Conference. He
alongside his TNT Tropang Giga counterpart Jayson Castro, are the only
interruptions in the otherwise straight BPC victory streak of San Miguel
Beerman June Mar Fajardo, from season 2012-13.
How was this possible when,
season stats-wise, Pringle ranked sixth among other BPC hopefuls like Booby Ray
Parks, Roger Pogoy and Matthew Wright? It came down to voting between league
players (he got the most with 67) and the top vote from the PBA commissioner’s office
(which counted 300); added to his stats total (641) and media vote total,
Pringle finished off with 1,640 points to clinch Best Player. Top stats for the
season went to Parks (704) while Wright of Phoenix Super LPG was the media
darling with 868.
ESPN-5 newscaster Paolo Del Rosario posted on Twitter a breakdown
of points received for all contenders in the PBA Special Awards for the 2020
Philippine conference. In addition to being BPC, Stanley Pringle is part of the
Elite 5 with fellow guard Matthew Wright, and Calvin Abueva, Japeth Aguilar and
JP Erram from the Center/Forwards. Norman Black’s son Aaron Black (Meralco) was
named Outstanding Rookie, Prince Caperal (Ginebra) was voted Most Improved
Player, and Scottie Thompson got the Sportsmanship kudos.
Here is the breakdown of how the winners of the 2020 @pbaconnect Special Awards were selected.
— Paolo del Rosario (@paodelrosario) January 17, 2021
Stanley Pringle narrowly beats Matthew Wright for the BPC plum, while Aaron Black comes out as the clear winner for outstanding rookie. | @OneSportsPHL pic.twitter.com/JYOPaOPaML
The bubble environment that the PBA
set up to play its 2020 Philippine Cup to completion was at Clark Freeport Zone
in Pampanga. Players were bussed under tight health and safety guidelines
between their accommodations and the sole game venue, the Angeles University
Foundation Sports and Cultural Center. The virtual presentation of the Special
Awards last Sunday was again necessitated by the still-ongoing COVID pandemic.
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