Slaughter hopes Fajardo will be healthy when Ginebra, Petron meet again

MANILA, Philippines — Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Greg Slaughter hopes to finally meet long-time rival Junemar Fajardo when the Kings and the Petron Blaze Boosters face again along the way.

And for the seven-foot Slaughter, it won’t take long before it happens.

“I was looking forward to it (playing against Fajardo),” said Slaughter after his 17-points, eight-rebound effort in Ginebra’s 97-83 win over an undermanned Petron side late Wednesday night.

“But injuries are part of the game so we can’t dwell on that,” added Slaughter, who has had quite a few battles with Fajardo when the two used to play in Cesafi for their respective teams.

Fajardo, the six-foot-10 sophomore, sustained a sprained ACL on his right knee last Monday and will be out for two weeks and with the Boosters left sans a center able to match up size and strength wise against Slaughter, the Kings were able to take advantage.

Slaughter though, wouldn’t say if Fajardo’s presence would’ve changed the outcome of the game.

“You can’t tell, that’s just the way it goes sometimes. Injuries are part of the game so we can’t really think about that.”

“I’m sure we’ll run into them in the playoffs but hopefully Junemar will be healthy by then.”