June Mar Fajardo
June Mar S. Fajardo is a Filipino professional basketball player for the San Miguel Beermen of the Philippine Basketball Association. He is also known by his nickname "The Kraken” for his extraordinary size and finesse against opposing big men.
Born in Compostela, he transferred with his parents to Pinamungajan at an early age, where he spent most of his younger and teen years. He played center for the University of Cebu Webmasters in the CESAFI and for the San Miguel Beermen in the ASEAN Basketball League before being selected as the first overall in the 2012 PBA draft by Petron Blaze Boosters. Despite his young age, Fajardo showed great potential and has been dubbed by local sports analysts as the Future of Philippine basketball. During his rookie season, he earned a silver medal playing Men's basketball at the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship for Team Philippines. He was also selected to the All-Rookie Team and Second Mythical Team.
Professional career
Rookie year
Petron Blaze Boosters
He made his debut against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters. Fajardo struggled in the first two conferences in his rookie year. However, in the semifinals of the third conference, Fajardo carried his team against Rain or Shine, scoring a career 26 points in Game 2, outplaying the veteran big men of Rain or Shine's Beau Belga and J.R. Quiñahan. They eventually won the best of 5 series in 3-1.Fajardo's Petron faced the San Mig Super Coffee Mixers on the 2013 PBA Governors' Cup Finals where Fajardo was now known as one of the most dominant big man to play in the PBA since Asi Taulava. Fajardo dominated every big men of the San Mig Coffee Mixers, outplaying Marc Pingris, Rafi Reavis and Yancy De Ocampo. In one game, Fajardo scored 23 points and grabbed a career high 26 rebounds. This was the first time a player in the PBA achieved a 20-20 game since Asi Taulava and Eric Menk. However, his team fell short and San Mig Coffee Mixers eventually won in Game 7. He finished the 2013 PBA Governors' Cup Finals with an average of 18.75 points and 14.50 rebounds.
Sophomore Year
Petron Blaze Boosters / San Miguel Beermen
As expected by many, Fajardo continued his dominance under the paint, averaging double-figures all throughout the 2013-14 PBA Philippine Cup conference. He put together norms of 15.1 points, 15.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 2.5 blocks in the first 11 games with the Blaze Boosters.With his monstrous efforts, Boosters were able to enter the quarterfinals, facing off Barako Bull Energy. However, when they entered the semifinals, despite his Kraken-like efforts, the team was outplayed by Rain or Shine Elasto Painters led by Extra Rice Inc. tandem Beau Belga and JR Quiñahan, where they lost the series in 5 games. Despite of this, he was still awarded as the Best Player of the Conference.
When Petron reverted to San Miguel Beermen, Fajardo changed his Number 22 to Number 15. The following conference was followed with disappointment as the Beermen fell short in the quarter finals after losing to Air 21 despite having a twice-to-beat advantage in the series.
In the third conference, Fajardo was a man on a mission. He normed 20 and 15 the entire conference. On June 3, 2014 Fajardo scored 26 points and grabbed 27 rebounds, marking his 3rd career 20-20 game; his 27 rebounds were 2 shy of a PBA Record. He finished the conference with averages of 21.2 points, 15.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks despite losing to San Mig Super Coffee Mixers in the quarterfinals. Despite not being successful as a whole team for his sophomore season, Fajardo was still able to end it on a positive note by raking several awards. He was awarded as the 2014 PBA Most Improved Player, one of the members of the PBA All Defensive team and the PBA Mythical First Team, and finally as the 2014 PBA Most Valuable Player.
2014-15 Season
Philippine Cup
On the first game of the 2014-15 Philippine Cup, Fajardo recorded 16 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists in a 87-79 win over the Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters. The next game, Fajardo recorded 22 points, 16 rebounds and 6 blocks as the Beermen got the win over the Purefoods Star Hotshots, 87-80. On November 5, Fajardo recorded 10 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks but in a losing effort to the Barako Bull Energy Boosters. On November 16, Fajardo recorded a double-double of 21 points and 15 rebounds to go along with 4 blocks as the Beermen escaped its sister company, the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, 79-77. On November 19 against Columbian Dyip, he recorded a career-high 36 points to go along with 17 rebounds in almost 40 minutes of playing time for he guided the Beermen towards the win, 90-74. On November 28, in Fajardo recorded 21 points and 11 rebounds as he led the Beermen cruise past the Meralco Bolts.. In the last game of the elimination round, Fajardo recorded 14 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks in just 26 minutes of playing time as the Beermen won, 91-62, against the Blackwater Elite. The Beermen ended the eliminations with a 9-2 record, tied with Rain or Shine Elasto Painters for the first seed, thus earning a first-round bye.During the course of the playoffs, the Beermen first fought the TNT Katropa in the semifinals round. Even though Fajardo was out for Game 1, his team managed to beat the Katropa to lead the series 1-0. Fajardo came back in Game 2 and he recorded 23 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists as the Beermen won, 109-86. The Beermen outscored the Katropa 33-9 in the second quarter. They were now up 2-0 in the series.
2015-16 Season
In 2016, Fajardo received multiple awards during the PBA Leo Awards Night. He was named as the PBA's Most Valuable Player, a member of Mythical 1st Team and the recipient of Samboy Lim Sportsmanship Award.2016-17 Season
In 2017, June Mar Fajardo makes history as the only PBA player to win the MVP award in four straight seasons.2017-18 Season
In 2018, Fajardo won 2 Best Player of the Conference, had a slot in the 1st Mythical Team, and won his 5th Straight MVP Award, which is a record. And Fajardo also won the 2018 Philippine Cup Finals MVP after their triumph over Magnolia in the Finals.2019 Season
2020 Season
International career
Fajardo was chosen to be part of the Smart Gilas 2.0 team, later known as Gilas Pilipinas, that was built for the 2014 World Championships. After months of training that includes trips and scrimmages to Lithuania and New Zealand, Fajardo was included in the final 12-man lineup that would compete in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship, the qualifier for the 2014 World Championships. In his first game in international competition, Fajardo scored 2 points, grabbed 2 rebounds, and was called for 4 personal fouls in less than 9 minutes of action against Saudi Arabia. He then only scored a total of 1 point in his next 6 games. Ultimately, Gilas Pilipinas finished with a silver medal and automatically qualified for next year's World Championships.When the Gilas Pilipinas prepared for the 2014 FIBA World Cup, he was again called up to be part of the training pool.
He was also part of the Gilas team which played in Wuhan, China for the 5th FIBA Asia Cup. The team won the Bronze medal. However, he was almost a non factor as he was still adjusting to the international game and style of play.
After the FIBA Asia Cup, the Gilas Training Pool headed to Miami to kick start their long preparations for the 2014 World Cup and the 2014 Asian Games.
The Gilas team played several tune up games in Miami against Pro Am teams. Clearly it was observed by many that he was still struggling but showed some good signs during their first tune up match.
After the training camp in Miami, the Gilas Training Pool then travelled to Europe to continue their workouts. There they also participated in several friendly matches in Spain against an All star team composed of several players from the Spanish basketball league. From there the team went to Antibes, France wherein they played against several nationals teams such as France, Australia, and Ukraine. After the pocket tournament in France, the team travelled back to Spain and continued having friendly matches against Basque Euskadi and against Angola. Since the Antibes games, he was rarely used due to his poor performances when inserted into games. On one occasion, it was caught on video where he was scolded by National team Coach Chot Reyes and being approached by the Team Consultant, Tab Baldwin.
On the last two friendly matches of Gilas, Fajardo finally showed signs of improvement. During a friendly match against the Egypt National Team, Andray Blatche was performing bad. Fajardo had the chance to step up and provided the inside presence for the team. Team Manager Aboy Castro was quoted saying June Mar gave us the effort and the production while Andray was on the bench, he played the game of his life. An improvement in his game was noticed, in terms of hustle, assertiveness and even his mid range shooting.
Against Dominican Republic, it was the same situation for him wherein he was showing good signs of improvement in terms of playing international ball.
During his stint in the recent 2014 FIBA World Cup, Fajardo was very consistent in his performance, providing energy and hustle every time he came off the bench. It was expected by many that he would struggle on playing against other bigs from Croatia, Greece, and Argentina, but he exceeded this negative expectations and provided good numbers everytime he relieved Blatche. Due to his good performance, he was ranked second among all players in terms of Player Efficiency Rating. With this rating, he was behind the Spanish NBA Player Pau Gasol, and ranked higher than some NBA players in the PER rating.
Due to his good performance, everyone was asked why he was playing limited minutes coming off the bench, and when he was interviewed, he said that he trusts the coach and he knows that the coach has plans.
Everyone's wish was granted on the team's last game against Senegal. Most of the players were either fatigued and injured, and as expected, Fajardo played his best game of the tournament. After the game, he had 15 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists as he provided hustle and muscle against the big men of Senegal wherein it came to a point that. His great performance was even highlighted when Andray Blatche was fouled out in the overtime period. The game was tied at 69, and a high low play allowed him to score and gave the Philippines the lead. Eventually under the efforts of June Mar and team captain Jimmy Alapag, they won the game, ending their stint at the 2014 FIBA World Cup.
Coach Chot Reyes also bared that included June Mar in the lineup which competed in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Korea. The team however ended with a disappointing result after losing to Iran, Qatar, and Korea in the group stage and losing to China in the 5th Place classification round. But the team beat Mongolia and took the 7th place.