13 May Cagayan de Oro’s Pride Carlo Lastimosa – Top 5 in the PBA Best Player of the Conference Selection!
Image Source | cnnphilippines.com
Carlo Lastimosa from Cagayan de Oro City is having his breakout season in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) after being traded from the Barako Bull Energy to Black Water Elite where he emerged from a backup shooting guard into a scoring machine finishing 5th in the PBA’s best local players list released by the PBA.
Carlo is the son of Cebu team Mama’s Love PABL player Danny Lastimosa and a nephew of PBA legend Jojo Lastimosa.
Tonight, May 13, the Best Player of the Conference (BPC) of the PBA will be announced prior to the game 4 of the PBA finals between the Rain or Shine Elastopainters and the Alaska Aces.
Lastimosa is still hopeful to grab the award even if his team has already been eliminated in the conference.
Among the top 5 in the local player rankings, Calvin “The Beast” Abueva is the only player who is still seeing action playing for the Alaska Aces who are now down in 0-3 series against the Elastopainters.
According to the statistical points (SPs) sheet that has been delivered by the PBA, Lastimosa ranks 5th in the average SPs ranking with 28.55 SPs after averaging 21.2 points per game (ppg), 3.7 rebounds per game (rpg), 2.5 assists per game (apg), 0.6 steals per game (spg), 0.1 blocks per game (bpg).
Image Source | twitter.com/janebracher
To complete the list, Big man Greg Slaughter of the Ginebra Kings is at 34.2 SPs, trailing him is Abueva with 33.1, Hot shooting Terrence Romeo of the Global Port Batang Pier with 33.0 in the third place, and fourth is Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texter’s point guard Jayson “The Asian Blur” Castro.
Lastimosa’s emergence in the PBA’s limelight is unprecedented. Before his stint with the Elite, he only averages 6 points per game for the Energy.
Now, he has just signed a 3-year deal with the Elite being the primary guard and scorer of the team.
Before Lastimosa has been discovered in the PBA, he played hoops in his Highschool Alma matter Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan (XUHS) and got discovered by scouts in 2007.
He was invited to play for the Ateneo Blue Eagles but has been dismissed because of academic reasons. Carlo was then invited to play for Jose Rizal University but declined the offer and chooses to take his talents to DLS-College of St. Benilde of the NCAA instead. He pursued his academic career and took the course Hotel and Restaurant Management.
Carlo’s Black Water did not make the Playoffs this year and can be a huge concern whether or not he will be able to grab the BPC trophy. To see it that he have gotten himself into the top 5 is already a huge accomplishment looking back when he was picked 20th in the draft by the Barako Bull 3 years ago.
The next possible award that he might get, a more realistic and easy one compared to the BPC is the Most Improve Player (MIP) award. To spark a 15 points per game increase in his numbers within just one year is just monumental! Hence, the MIP award is very realistic concerning the surge of his stats.
This will surely give pride for Cagayan de Oro City, for the city does not thrive only in our development in education, safety, and more, but also in sports.
This accomplishment of Lastimosa is just a start to call for the recent elected Mayor Oscar Moreno to pump-up their support in the improvements of the sports facilities in the city as well as conducting more sporting events so that scouts from other cities can find prospects in our area.
Lastimosa is just the start of the blooming sports environment in the city. Currently, the Xavier University is regularly receiving out of town PBA games scheduled every conference. Imagine the boost to the city industry when a visiting Carlo Lastimosa and his Black Water Elite showcase their talents in the front of his fellow Kagay-anons.
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