MANILA, Philippines, 09th July 2009 Chot Reyes, who handled an all-pro national team two years ago, once described Jayjay Helterbrand as the best point guard in Asia. In the current PBA season, Helterbrand is the best basketball player this side of the planet.

“It’s really a very big honor. I thank God for the blessings and opportunity. I also thank the Ginebra coaching staff and my teammates for their support,” said Helterbrand.

The Barangay Ginebra spitfire was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player, beating out a slew of bigger players to clinch the biggest award of his career, which came at a time when he needed to step up and make himself one of the league’s all-time greats.

Helterbrand won the award in runaway style, tallying 3,220 points by ruling every category from the statistical points race to the votes coming from the PBA, television coverer Solar, his fellow players and the covering media.

“It was something that I wished would happen (when I started my PBA career), but I never thought it would be like this,” Helterbrand, who became the first Ginebra player since Eric Menk in 2005 to win the MVP, told scribes. Helterbrand averaged 17.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and five assists per contest for the Gin Kings this season, numbers which actually dropped from his career-best figures of 18.1, 4.7 and 6.5, respectively, last year.

“If you had told me at the start of the season … that I would be MVP, I probably would have thought that you were crazy,” said Helterbrand, whose assist-to-turnover ratio also experienced a minor dip from 2.44 last year to 2.36 this season.

The MVP of the 2009 was awarded just before tip-off of Game 4 of the PBA Fiesta Cup Final title series at the Araneta Coliseum, which the Ginebra is currently defending the title against the San Miguel.

The best of 7 series is now tied at 2-2.

source: http://www.fusionexcel.com/news_fe_qpeare_jayjayhelterbrand.html

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