ASIDE from helping establish many firsts for his team, Sta.
Lucia Realty forward Kelly Williams is also on the threshold of a personal
milestone.
After the semifinals of the Smart PBA Philippine Cup, last
year’s best rookie emerged as a prime candidate for Best Player of the
Conference award, joining a short list that includes former season Most Valuable
Players Asi Taulava and Willie Miller.
With an average statistical points of 36.8, Williams actually
wound up second behind Air21’s Arwind Santos (37.1 SPs) and just a hair ahead of
Coca-Cola center Taulava (36.7).
But the Express managed to only get as far as the wildcard
phase and Tigers the quarterfinals, ruining the bids of their lead players.
Ditto for Miller (36.2 SPs), whose Aces bowed to the Realtors in the semifinals.
That pretty much leaves voters from the media, a special
committee and players to focus on Williams and Purefoods’ Kerby Raymundo (32.9
SPs), who is fifth among the top 30 players in the season-opening conference.
Interestingly, 2005-06 season MVP James Yap, the semis’
leading scorer with a 21.7-point average, wound up with a 32.2 SPs and narrowly
missed being included in the list of candidates.
League rules dictate that only the top five candidates will
be considered for the BPC award, which is also a basis for the season MVP award.
"Hindi bale," grinned Yap. "Finals MVP na lang ang hahabulin
ko."
The 6-foot-6 Williams, who averaged 21.0 ppg and 11.0 rpg,
feels honored to be a prime candidate but insisted his focus is on helping Sta.
Lucia end a six-year title drought and land a first-ever All-Filipino title.
"To be mentioned with those guys is awesome, an honor," said
Williams. "But I definitely wouldn’t be where I am without the rest of the team,
so I’ll just do what I have to do to help the team: Rebound, score, cheer (the)
team on."
Due to suspected tendonitis on his knees that affected his
performance in the semis, Sta. Lucia’s Ryan Reyes found himself relegated to
second spot in the Top Rookie race, his 25.7 SPs trailing Welcoat Joe Devance’s
26.0.
Coke’s Ronjay Buenafe is running third with 20.6, followed by Purefoods’
Chico Lanete (20.5). (Noli Cortez)
