PBA 1978 Most Valuable Player - Robert “Sonny” Jaworski, Sr.

PBA 1978 Most Valuable Player - Robert “Sonny” Jaworski, Sr.

The Big J / The Living Legend
PBA’s biggest superstar
1978 PBA Most Valuable Player

Stats 

Games Played : 55
Points Average : 20.42
Assists Total : 453
Rebounds Average : 10.2
Blocks Total : 15
Steals Total : 99

Source : PBA Archives Collections

Jaworski's MVP performance may arguably be considered as his best single season, averaging 20 points, 12 assists and close to nine rebounds per game. This was done despite the presence of hulking imports with no height limit, who played both for Toyota and their competitors. 

Focus On MVP Race
STATISTICALLY, IT'S JAWORSKI

As for Coach Mumar, he would rather fall back on statistics in his choice of Jaworski as PBA All-Filipino MVP. "It's all there from the time the conference started," said Mumar, and with what Sonny has compiled in terms of awesome statistics to underscore his claim to the honor, it would seem as if only a major disaster can stop him from making it as MVP." And indeed, a study of the Toyota superstar's performance chart shows how from the time the first conference started last April and all the way to Toyota's ouster of Crispa in last week's sudden death match between the two ballclubs for the last finals berth, Jaworski kad proven himself the league's most outstanding all-around player. In seven games played in the first round, the 31-year old twotime Olympian was seventh in the list of scoring leaders with a 21.43 average per game. In free throws, he held 12th place with an 81.48 conversion average from the 15-foot line. In rebounds, he ranked next to topnotcher Manny Paner of Great Taste Discoverers with a 14.14 average per game. In assists, he topped the field with an average of 7.71 assists per game. He also figured in the first round's list of players with most steals and interceptions, his 1.43 average for this department of the game earning him a fifth place ranking. Also for the first round, Jaworski ranked fourth in the list of players with the highest time exposure with his 38.41 minute per game average. In the second round, Jaworski went down from seventh to eighth in field goal scoring although his average for the stretch 21.71 was higher than his first round average. In free throws, Jaworski remained among the league's top 31 foul shooters, his 82.35 average earning him a 10th place ranking. In rebounding, Jaworski was the highest Filipino rebounder, his average of 13.57 per game only bested by Billy Robinson's 21.62 and Cisco Oliver's 15.57. In assists, Jaworski remained the top man with his average of 9.57 per game. In steals, he held seventh place in the second round with a 1.86 average. In time exposure, Jaworski was second only to Robinson with his 39.51 average per game. Going over the Jaworski chart with Sports Weekly, Coach Mumar had only one word to describe it: awesome.the And "awesome" it really has been Big J's performance in a PBA series that had seen the Toyota Tamaraws survive a round of four crisis that for a while had threatened to lay to waste Jaworski's almost undisputed claim to the league's highest individual honor for its 1978 season. 

PBA '78 FIRST CONFERENCE
FIRST FIVE
BY PYKE F, JOCSON

No PBA conference, especially the All-Filipino, would be complete to the eyes of the thousand followers of the premier basketball league in the country without the usual MVPs and other notable individual awards. Hence, the mythical selection is played up not only by top weekly magazines but also by those who have religiously watched majority of the games at the Big Dome. For this year's All-Filipino, SPORTS WEEKLY has come out with its own version of the mythical five, a recognition of the top five players for their distinguished performance in the conference. Robert Jaworski. Philip Cezar. Ramon Fernandez. Danilo Florencio. Fortunato Co. Robert Jaworski, the Toyota superstar, is our hands down choice as the conference's number one, a most valuable player of the first magnitude. With the recognition, the Big J easily emerges as our first choice for one of the two slots in the backcourt department over other noted guards Atoy Co, Francis Arnaiz, Lim Eng Beng and Freddie Webb. Joining Big J is the Fortune Cookie, for, despite a not too revealing act in the conference, manages to cling on to second spot with a presence that has always been considered a threat, a point he enjoys over Arnaiz, who was off in the early part of the contest, Beng who was overly-trying, and Webb, who had some inconsistent nights. Then the powerhouse, the pointmakers. The forwards who sizzled with their mastery of the offense. Our original list came up with five: Danilo Florencio, Jaime Manansala, Alfredo Hubalde, Adriano Papa and Philip Cezar. The final choice for the wings: Florencio and Cezar. And here's why. Florencio proved to be Toyota's scoring ace, a role some doubted he could play when Dante Silverio acquired him to bolster the Tamaraws' offense. With such a starstudded line-up as Toyota's, Florencio managed to reaffirm his supremacy as PBA's top winger. Cezar, whose hands may not be as comparably hot as those of Papa's or Hubalde's or Manansala's, made our selection nonetheless, because he best represented the other kind of a forward, a shooting threat and a tiger in defense. The latter quality made Cezar the forward with a difference, a star all his own. Without this very strong point to back him up, our choice would be the gangling greenhorn, a top Esquire in so short a time, Jimmy Manansala, who could easily make it to our next five had there been any. Hubalde, last All-Filipino MVP was off and on, while the veteran Jun Papa was strongly-supported by Billy Robinson. In the pivot, Ramon Fernandez, the Toyota beanpole, was another hands down choice. Other names mentioned during SWM's deliberation were Alberto Guidaben, Jaime Taguines and Rudolf Kutch. "Without Fernandez, we doubt very much if Toyota would have gone this far. Of course there were the other stars in his team. But his holding his own against Billy Ro binson in the championship round was something which just could not be ignored." Robinson was not included in the deliberation. Robert Jaworski. Philip Cezar. Ramon Fernandez. Darilo Floren cio. Fortunato Co. Indeed, a dream first five. They represent the conference's best.