ANTIPOLO City - Arvin Tolentino bagged his first ever PBA Best Player of the Conference award after a remarkable Commissioner's Cup campaign where he led Northport to the semifinals for just the third time after finishing as the top seeded team heading to the playoffs.
The 29-year-old forward won the Pocari Sweat BPC award with a total of 1,077 points to beat out Calvin Oftana (777) and 11-time winner June Mar Fajardo (600).
Tolentino shared the limelight Friday night with Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who won the ArenaPlus Best Import of the Conference award for the third time with TNT.
Hollis-Jefferson, who tied Barangay Ginebra's Justine Brownlee and Meralco's Allen Durham for the second most in league history, won by a mile (1,280) over Kadeem Jack of Northport (825).
The two were honored just before Game 4 of the best-of-seven finals between Barangay Ginebra and TNT at the Ynares Center.
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They were joined during the awarding ceremony by Commissioner Willie Marcial, Board Vice Chairman Alfrancis Chua, and team governors Ronald Dulatre (NLEX), Eric Arejola (Northport), and Robert Non (San Miguel).
"Mataas akong mangarap and I really want to be the best. And to be the best, ikaw yung pinaka-worthy," said Tolentino, who cut short his family vacation in Boracay to personally receive his breakthrough BPC plum.
"Siyempre babalik ako (in Manila). Best Player of the Conference, e. So I have to be there."
Only the second Northport to win the award after Christian Standhardinger in the 2019 Governors' Cup, Tolentino finished third in statistical points with 454 behind Fajardo (525) and Bolick (464).
He also placed third in the players' votes with 54 points, which Oftana topped with 98 and followed by Bolick with 62.
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But he received the bulk of the media votes with 564, relegating Oftana at second with 230.
Bolick finished fourth in the BPC race with 540 points, while behind him was Converge rookie Jordan Heading with 419 points.
Hollis-Jefferson was the runaway winner in the award named after the late great import Bobby Parks, who won the honor a record seven times.
The former NBA player topped the statistics (615), media votes 532), and players' votes (133) as he carried the Tropang Giga anew to the finals after steering the franchise to the Governors' Cup championship in the first conference where he also the Best Import.
Hollis-Jefferson became the first reinforcement to win the award back-to-back in a season since Parks for Shell in 1990 (Reinforced and Open conferences) and Billy Ray Bates for Crispa in 1983 (2nd and 3rd conferences).
Three-time winner Justin Brownlee of Barangay Ginebra placed third (670) and Rain or Shine's Deon Thompson at fourth (633). (RG)
