Certified: Arwind Santos, PBA MVP

Game recognize game
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

I done kept it real from the jump
Living at my mama's house we'd argue every mornin'
Nigga, I was trying to get it on my own
Working all night, traffic on the way home
And my uncle calling me like "Where ya at?
I gave you the keys told ya bring it right back"
Nigga, I just think it's funny how it goes
Now I'm on the road, half a million for a show

- Started from the bottom, Drake

The odd jobs, countless afternoons and evenings spent in minor basketball leagues playing on pavement where hustling for the basketball means a sure chipped tooth, scraped knees and a boat load of cheap elbow shots to the mid section—all that has come to this moment.

When the Petron Blaze Boosters’ Arwind Santos was hailed as PBA Most Valuable Player, fans were divided. Some cheered while others jeered. Other names were thrown around with their own merits and arguments. Some enjoyed a better season than Santos, some put up eye-popping stat-lines that would solidify their claim. Hell, some would even argue that Santos’ best seasons came in the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.

But none of them can lay claim to having done the same things, at a very high level, as Santos who has proven himself worthy of being an MVP frontrunner since his 2006 rookie season.

Santos confutes all questions to his credibility with a yearly average of 15 points and 9 rebounds a game-- and we don't mean that in Santos averaging 20 points one season and 10 points another, we're talking 15 and 9 EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. There's also his newly won 1x Most Valuable Player award plus 2x Defensive Player of the Year, 6x Mythical First Team, 1x Mythical Second Team, 7x All-Defensive Team, All-Rookie Team, 2x Best Player of the Conference, 1x Finals Most Valuable Player, 1x All-Star MVP.

For most PBA superstars the above accolades are easily 10 years’ worth of individual citations en route to a first class ticket to the PBA Hall of Fame. For Santos? Think seven years of consistency that has become so “boring” and “substandard” people overlook his impact on the game.

Other stars are showcased by their respective teams given their unique skillset. They’re given freedom with the basketball and so on to be effective. Once they’re sent elsewhere, everything collapses and they either struggle early or worse, fade away.

That’s where Santos differs.

He is not a scorer like Mark Caguioa with fancy moves, highlight reel ankle-breakers and ever-changing hairdos. He isn’t Jayson Castro who will blitzed through defenders or an L.A. Tenorio who orchestrates winning plays in a cool, collected manner like it’s nothing.

Santos is a role player—a mighty great one at that.
He does the things that can turn games around in his team’s favor. He dabbles/ dabbled in trying to play alpha dog/ scorer but that’s just not his nature. He is a freak of nature, an athlete among athletes—jumps higher, stronger and moves faster than guys his size.

So should people really question Santos being hailed as PBA MVP?

We’ll let you decide on that. If you ask us however, we say the award’s been a long time coming.